


The Warmth of Home

by screamingsongbird16



Category: Joker Game (Anime)
Genre: Gen, Getting cozy, Getting snowed in, Hurt/Comfort, Post-Traumatic Stress, aLIvE-verse, snowstorm
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-18
Updated: 2020-04-18
Packaged: 2021-02-08 08:48:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 31,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21473293
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/screamingsongbird16/pseuds/screamingsongbird16
Summary: When a blizzard strikes Tokyo and shuts down the city, the spies are lucky enough to all be snowed in together.  But the cold brings some unpleasant memories closer to the surface for several of the spies . . .
Relationships: D-Family
Comments: 60
Kudos: 47





	1. Chapter 1

Set in the aLIvE-verse, where Miyoshi survives. Takes place directly after my other fic: Safe at Home.

* * *

It was bitter cold. Not the coldest Odagiri had ever been, but just a few days ago, Tokyo had experienced a surge of unseasonable warmth. It had been foolish to hope for an early spring. Now that the normal wintery weather had set back in, it felt even colder than before . . . but still not as cold as Manchuria.

The sun was starting to set, Odagiri knew, but it was harder to tell because of the sky. Pure white clouds stretched seamlessly as far as the eye could see. A few lazy snowflakes had already started to fall. They would be joined soon by many others. According to the radio, it was going to snow all night, then for the majority of the next four days. Probably longer, according to Tazaki, who was the best of them at interpreting weather patterns, and made it clear he thought the country’s meteorologists were underselling the storm’s severity. He expected the impending blizzard to thoroughly shut down Tokyo for at least a week. Which was why Odagiri was out now, jogging with Jitsui. 

Since getting home from Germany, both Odagiri and Jitsui had undergone grueling reconditioning. Both physical and chemical. They were still undergoing the physical conditioning, and probably would be for several more weeks to come. The chemical conditioning . . . well, Odagiri was very glad to have that behind him. 

The clothes they were training in weren’t military per se, but the fact that they were training outdoors, in weather like this, itself, was enough to put the idea in peoples’ heads, and so they got out of Odagiri’s and Jitsui’s way. Which was good. The streets were bustling with people out obtaining last minute supplies, or at least trying to. For most of them, those last minute supplies could probably not be found. Pickings had been slim nation-wide before the storm was announced, because of the war effort. What staples that were available would have flown off the shelves as soon as people realized that they wouldn’t be able to get out and restock regularly. Now those who hadn’t been quick enough would have to make do without or buy more expensive substitutes if they could afford them. Most couldn’t. Odagiri couldn’t help but feel a twinge of pity for them . . . though he knew things could be much, much worse.

Manchuria came to mind again. No matter how much Odagiri tried to put it out of his mind, his thoughts always turned back to his last . . . assignment. Chemical conditioning was supposed to have helped him put it behind him, but hadn’t actually done too much. Odagiri wasn’t sure why, but suspected that it was because the knowledge that he’d gathered there haunted him, and burrowed its way deeper into his conscience than the chemical conditioning could burrow into his mind. 

“Odagiri! Odagiri!”

Odagiri realized with a start that his name was being called. Had been called more than a few times from Jitsui’s tone. He skidded to a stop, giving Jitsui time to grip his arm as he tried to get his attention.

“What? Sorry . . .” Odagiri was surprised to see actual concern in Jitsui’s big dark eyes. 

“It’s time to turn around,” Jitsui said. 

He was right. Though “turn around” perhaps wasn’t the best description. They’d reached the halfway point in their run. But rather than run straight back, their route took them onto another, lesser used street, then onto a more popular one that ran parallel to the road they were on now. Yuuki-san insisted they not pass the same place twice on their runs. It kept them from becoming too noticeable. But whatever the terminology, they had missed the street they were supposed to turn onto by an embarrassing half a block. 

“Sorry,” said Odagiri again. “I was distracted.”

“Were you?” Jitsui asked, half snarky, half politely. But then sentiment flashed through his eyes. “I get it. I’m anxious too. But the sooner we get back, the sooner we’ll know.”

Odagiri was confused but only for a moment before remembering. The Japanese delegation to Germany was returning today. They should have touched down in an airport just north of Tokyo, around the time Odagiri and Jitsui left for their run, around mid-afternoon. By the time Odagiri and Jitsui got back to D-Agency, enough time should have passed for Kaminaga and/or Amari to make it home from the airport. If they had been on that plane. No one was positive, except perhaps Hatano, who had been everyone’s final point of contact in Germany, but everyone suspected that Yuuki-san had instructed at least one of the two missing spies to return home with the delegation. Or at least they hoped. It had been two months now. Plenty of time for a D-Agency spy to make his way home by other means.

That had been at the forefront of Odagiri’s mind for most of his run. But the rapidly falling temperatures and the increase in falling snow was pulling his mind back to Manchuria. Odagiri saw now that he was looking, that the sky had turned a silvery blue. Soon it would start to get dark. And more snow was falling now, not so lazily. Large flakes tumbling from the sky, covering all of the fast freezing surfaces. They were melting when they touched the ground, for now, but soon the earth would grow cold enough for them to start sticking.

“Let’s go,” said Jitsui, a bit impatiently, shuffling his feet to keep warm. 

“Right,” Odagiri said readily. He knew how much Jitsui hated the cold. And both of them were anxious to see if the last of their fellow spies had returned.

But Odagiri didn’t make it more than a few steps before memories of Manchuria began swirling back through his mind . . .

Months Ago . . .

_ The bullet’s sting brought more fear than pain as Odagiri slammed the office door behind him. He couldn’t tell, in that moment, how bad the bullet wound was. Only knew that he’d been shot. But he had no time to tend to the injury. _

_ The heavy cabinet by his office door had been put there by design. Odagiri hadn’t been a D-Agency spy for nothing. He grabbed it now and dragged it, painstakingly, the few feet that he needed to in order to block the door. And none too soon. He hadn’t even let go of the cabinet when fists began to pound on it._

_ “Coward! You won’t get away with this, Tobisaki!”_

Get away with this_? Odagiri thought disgustedly. _Get away with documenting atrocities our soldiers committed? 

_ Someone seemed to have their priorities mixed up. Or at least their morals. _

_ But that was hardly a surprise. _

_ It was funny. Odagiri had left D-Agency because he could not come to grips with the ambiguous morality that the other spies embraced. And in doing so, he’d placed himself in the company of men who made his former colleagues look like saints. He really should have known better. His prior time in the army should have been a warning of just what Japan’s army was capable of . . . but who could have expected . . . this._

_ Odagiri clenched his fist so that the tips of his fingers brushed against the cuff of his shirt. Hidden inside was a roll of microfilm. The original of a copy that had just been found on an American journalist, detailing all of the atrocities Odagiri had unearthed that were perpetrated by the Japanese military. From the horrors in Nanjing to the comfort women of Korea. Every foul rumor that Odagiri had gotten wind of, he’d hunted down and found proof of in hopes . . . in hopes that someone, somewhere, could make the men who’d allowed these horrors to happen answer for them. He knew how stupid it had been to even hope. But he hadn’t been able to just sit back and do nothing._

_ Now it might cost him his life. And if it did, so be it. But Odagiri was hardly going to make it easy for the men who wanted to kill him. _

“Don’t die.”_ The stern voice echoed through Odagiri’s mind and spurred him into action. Odagiri hurried to his desk and pulled open the drawer. The spare pistol and the alcohol flask went into his pockets. Then he pulled out the false bottom and snatched up the leather pouch within, containing his emergency supply of cash and forged travel documents. _

_ The explosive ringing of more gunfire made him flinch, and work more quickly, fitting the false bottom back into place before shutting the drawer. No need to give away anything more than he had to. But now he needed to go, before they stopped shooting at the door and began trying to knock it down again in earnest. _

_ Odagiri kept two coats in his office. He took them both now. He was going to need them. _

_ Three stories up, the other officers must have believed Odagiri had nowhere to go. That’s why they were making a production of this. Shouting, and shooting at the door, and carrying on. Spoiled, pampered princes pretending to be soldiers. This was probably the closest thing to enemy action most of these samurai class soldiers had ever seen and they wanted to make the most of it. _

_ Odagiri was lucky that his pursuers were so stupid. _

_ He ran to the window and pulled it open. Immediately wind began whistling in, bringing with it a stinging barrage of snowflakes. Snow was rare in Manchuria. The air was usually too dry, but every now and then the occasional storm rolled in. This storm had only just started, but the weather reports were predicting it would be a big one. It would make the perfect cover for Odagiri to disappear into._

_ But it was going to be cold and painful as hell._

_ Banging resumed on the door behind Odagiri. The soldiers were attacking it with their fists, and feet. It wouldn’t be long before they managed to kick it in. Odagiri vaulted out the window and melted into the white. _

* * *

Notes: I am back, from a many month hiatus, with a new fic! Some of this content was originally planned to go in the previous fic in this series, 'Safe at Home,' but the last chapter of that fic tied the story up better than I meant for it to, so the story pretty much just continues here, and combines with some new plot elements. I hope you will enjoy it. Stay warm everyone! (Unless you're in the Southern hemisphere and it's becoming summer for you instead of winter. Then stay cool!)


	2. Chapter 2

Kaminaga’s heart was in his throat as he and Amari approached D-Agency. The rest of his mission in Berlin had gone smoothly. He’d wrapped everything up nice and neat, and left the network so that it could be picked back up if or when Yuuki-san sent another operative to Germany. He’d half expected to receive a message telling him to remain behind and carry on. Honestly, he’d been dreading that. Normally, he wouldn’t have minded, but if he’d had to stay then he wouldn’t have known whether their efforts had paid off. Wouldn’t have known if his friend was dead or alive.

He did his best to hide all of his anxiety. He thought that he was doing pretty well. The rest of the time spent in Germany, Kaminaga had gone into full professional mode. That included shutting Amari out as much as possible. Turning down all but a scant few of his offers to go out for drinks, step outside for cigarettes, and the variety of other small, fun, social things he’d always enjoyed doing with his fellow spies. He knew Amari was a bit stung, but understood the reasons for this. Amari wasn’t part of Kaminaga’s mission. If Kaminaga went down, he’d go down alone. His determination had raised his game. So while Kaminaga knew that there was still a part of him that was way too open where his fellow spies were concerned, and that they would always be a gaping weakness he never expected to have, he was pretty sure he was hiding it better now than he had before the Berlin trip. 

It was snowing lightly when they finally made it home, late in the afternoon. And from what they’d gathered, the snow was only going to get worse. If they’d arrived one day later, they probably wouldn’t have been able to land in Tokyo. And if they did, they would have been stuck at the airfield. That would have been horrific. Being stuck in another city or remote, cold location when they were so damn close to home, and their friends, and Fukumoto’s cooking . . . and still not knowing if everything they’d done had been for nothing. 

So, Kaminaga took it as a good omen that they’d made it home just in time. He couldn’t help being just a little superstitious. A carryover from his old life as an actor. He had to physically stop himself from holding his breath as he crossed the threshold, just in front of Amarai, then took several steps inside as Amari shut the door behind them.

He meant to take off his coat and shoes. There were two empty pegs on the rack by the door, meant for him and Amari, and two empty slots in the shoe rack. And right then Kaminaga knew. But he was still relieved beyond words when he heard a familiar voice call out to him from the spies’ favorite lounge.

“Kaminaga. Amari. Welcome back.”

Then Kaminaga was running, shoes and coat, and stoic resolve all forgotten. Amari was right behind him. And there was Miyoshi, seated by the fire. He looked worlds better than at their last meeting, when he’d been sickly pale and half a step from death. 

“You’re the last to get back,” Miyoshi informed them, confirming what Kaminaga already knew from the coat rack, though it was nice to get verbal confirmation on too. Everyone else was home safe. “Which is not to say that you’re late – oof!”

Oops. Kaminaga hadn’t meant to barrel hug him that hard. And Amari had piled right on too. Oh well. Miyoshi looked like he could handle it. His color was good, and his eyes were bright. And he was in the lounge, rather than the infirmary, where he most definitely would have been sequestered until Yuuki-san deemed him strong enough to survive a little abuse.

“Sorry,” he apologized all the same, as he loosened his hold a bit. “I’m just glad . . .” he coughed a bit awkwardly. “Glad to be home.”

“Yes. Me too.”

That was probably where Kaminaga should have let go. Carrying on would only make things awkward, and wasn’t exactly professional, but Miyoshi just felt really good to hold. So warm and alive. It made everything they’d been through seem worthwhile. 

Miyoshi remained still for a minute. Kaminaga expected him to tell them to get off. But Miyoshi didn’t. After another minute, he simply picked back up the book he’d been reading before Kaminaga and Amari came crashing in, and began reading once more. Kaminaga laughed, though it was muffled a bit into Miyoshi’s hair.

“Hey,” said another familiar voice from the doorway.

“Hey yourself, Hatano,” responded Kaminaga.

“Coats and shoes off. And you should really shower before you manhandle him. You know that.” Hatano sounded bored and annoyed in equal parts.

“Right. Sorry.” Kaminaga quickly detached himself.

“It’s been two months,” said Miyoshi. “I’m well on the mend.”

“And it was a pain to get you that way,” Hatano said dryly. “So I’d prefer you not screw it up.”

“We should report to Yuuki-san anyway,” said Kaminaga. He couldn’t help but feel a little rueful about how quickly his professionalism had gone out the window. He was relieved that he wasn’t suddenly Yuuki’s only option as a successor, but he was still a candidate. He needed to act like one. D-Agency deserved nothing less.

“Where’s Emma?” Amari asked Hatano. “Has she been alright without me? Has she been behaving?”

“She’s with Fukumoto now. Doing a little last minute shopping before the snow hits. They’ll be back soon,” answered Hatano. “She gave Sakuma-san hell, but turned sweet as pie as soon as Yuuki-san and I got home. She was sick for a bit. Yuuki-san, Sakuma-san and I were as well, but we managed to keep anyone else from getting catching it. She’s all better now. Begging Fukumoto for odango daily and beating Sakuma-san at shogi.”

“What? You taught her shogi? And she can beat Sakuma-san?” Amari looked like his heart was swelling.

“Nowhere near consistently,” Miyoshi corrected. “She’s only managed a few wins, and usually when Sakuma-san tries something new.”

“But she has beat him,” said Hatano. “And it wasn’t because he let her win.”

Kaminaga smiled, though he couldn’t help but wonder what force they’d be releasing on the world when Emma grew up. “Come on, Amari. Let’s check in with Yuuki-san.

* * *

Miyoshi wasn’t sure what he was feeling as he watched Kaminaga and Amari exit the lounge. There was a tightness in his chest. It felt almost like nostalgia, but also wistful, and inexplicably painful. Which made no sense. He was happy. Possibly happier than he’d ever been in his life before. He wasn’t even in physical pain anymore, as long as he wasn’t exerting himself, and as for emotional pain . . . well he had no reason to feel even an ounce of that.

“That’s a relief,” said Hatano, coming closer to Miyoshi. “I was worried their plane might be delayed. That would have been horrible for them.”

Miyoshi gave him a dry look. Their youngest was being a bit too blatant now that he was able to confirm he’d known Kaminaga and Amari would be on that plane. But his attention was quickly caught by another detail that made him scowl. “Dry your hair.”

“What do you think I’m down here for?” groused Hatano. He sunk into the chair across from Miyoshi’s on the other side of the fire, and began ruffling his hair with his towel. “I got my shower early so that I would have time to do this without missing out on anything else.”

“Good. Because it’s going to be cold tonight.” For the first month and a half after Miyoshi got back, D-Agency had been kept warmer in the winter than it had ever been before. Yuuki-san had done it for Miyoshi. He wanted him to have every advantage as he healed. Being comfortable, and at lower risk for ailments had been part of that. But in the past two weeks, the heat was being scaled back again. Miyoshi was still in the infirmary, and kept plenty warm by his proximity to the fireplace, but the dorms were probably back to their usual frigid temperature.

“Nothing I’m not used to,” said Hatano. “But I thought I’d try to avoid your nagging, at least for tonight.”

Miyoshi smirked. “Well, I appreciate the effort.” He knew that the only reason Hatano was bothering was because Miyoshi tended to give him a hard time about not drying his hair. He preferred Hatano not get sick again. 

“You’d better.” Hatano stopped ruffling the towel against his hair, deciding that towel drying it had gotten it as good as it was going to get. He draped the towel over the back of the chair, to aid in the towel’s drying, then pulled his legs up onto the seat of the chair and tucked them beneath himself, like a cat curling up to conserve warmth. “So. Is Sakuma-san going to be staying with us for the storm? Or has he opted to go to the military dorms?”

“He intends to stay here,” Miyoshi said. 

“Smart choice.”

And it really was. D-Agency was well stocked with all the essentials and plenty of comforts. The company was better for one thing. Even Sakuma had started admitting that the blindness and singlemindedness of his fellow soldiers was becoming more and more disturbing. Miyoshi had learned from Tazaki that as time had gone by, he’d begun spending more and more time at D-Agency by choice. It seemed that he now preferred the company of cheating spies to stoic soldiers. Then there was the food. There was absolutely no comparison in the quality of food Sakuma could get at the official military mess halls to Fukumoto’s home cooking, or Hatano’s French cuisine even after he’d adapted it to use ingredients available in Japan. He’d be warmer at D-Agency too. Even if they lost power, D-Agency had ample stores of coal. They wouldn’t heat the whole building. That would just be wasteful. But they could keep a few rooms warm. Meanwhile the soldiers in the barracks would be shivering themselves to sleep. 

Before Miyoshi could say anything to agree with Hatano’s assessment, a ripple of black caught his eye. He followed the movement and fought back a scowl at the sight of Yoru entering the lounge. Hatano followed his gaze and grinned.

“Yoru! Here boy!”

Yoru had been making his way toward Hatano anyway, but didn’t feel the need to pick up his pace at Hatano’s beckoning. He walked to his boy, quite casually, then hopped up into his lap, just as he’d intended, then craned his head up for pets.

“Hey boy. I’m glad you’re home. It’s gonna snow a lot tonight. But I bet you already know that,” said Hatano, patting his cat’s head, scratching under its chin, and obliging to the animal’s every whim.

“Don’t get fur everywhere,” said Miyoshi, frowning.

“We won’t,” said Hatano. And Yoru looked at Miyoshi, almost like he understood, then walked around on Hatano’s lap in a tight circle before curling up, his head resting on Hatano’s knee. “Good cat.”

Miyoshi stopped himself from arguing that no such thing existed just in time. It would only have led to Hatano smirking, and teasing, and hitting the nail right on the head as he speculated how Miyoshi was only pretending to hate Yoru and that the cat had grown on him a long time ago. Make no mistake, Miyoshi still did not like cats. Not in general. But Yoru was alright. Miyoshi couldn’t disapprove of the cat’s devotion to its humans. And if he was completely honest, it made him happy to see how happy Yoru made Hatano. But he didn’t want anyone mistaking his tolerance for Yoru as acceptance for all cats in general. Plus he still preferred that Yoru keep his distance from him.

“I hope Jitsui and Odagiri get back soon,” said Hatano, staring at the window.

“They will,” said Miyoshi. “Even military men running about on snowy streets attract attention.”

“True. Let’s just hope they get back before the streets get too slick and one of them slips. Odagiri’s pretty old. He might break a hip.”

Miyoshi gave a disparaging sigh. “Wait until he’s around to make fun of him. Or at least until Fukumoto is around.”

“Meh,” Hatano said noncommittally, and Miyoshi smiled. He’d always enjoyed bantering with Hatano. When he thought he was going to die, it was one of the things he knew he was going to miss the most. 

The smile drifted off his face as he turned his eyes toward the window. Now he couldn’t help but remember. It had been snowing that day too. The day of the train wreck. Right after the accident he’d been so cold, even though his chest was on fire. Then for days afterward, he remained so cold, he felt like his body had frozen. The drug he’d taken kept him from even being able to shiver. That had saved him, but it hadn’t really felt like it at the time. And when they’d closed the lid to his coffin and lowered him into the frozen earth, and everything went dark . . . that had been the most horrific point in Miyoshi’s life to date. 

Even now, just thinking about it was enough to make him cringe, and shiver involuntarily, suddenly feeling cold even when he had was dressed in warm clothes, seated by a fire, and suddenly feeling that fear again, even though he was at the place where he felt safest in the world. 

Miyoshi’s breath caught and he felt his heart start pounding out of control in his chest. When he remembered like this, it was almost like he was back there again, in his coffin, trapped, and alone, and so bitter cold, and scared. He had no idea how he’d managed to survive it. How he’d stayed calm and conserved what little oxygen had been in that box with him, because now he was panicked and couldn’t help drawing big, shaking breaths, but at the same time felt like he couldn’t breathe . . .

“Miyoshi! Miyoshi!”

Miyoshi snapped back to reality. Back to D-Agency, where he was sitting in the lounge, by the fire, across from his youngest brother. Hatano had stood up, spilling Yoru out of his lap, and had taken a step toward him, clearly ready to shake him back to the present.

“Sorry,” said Miyoshi quickly. “I zoned out for a moment. What were you saying?”

Hatano’s eyes remained concerned, but he didn’t press Miyoshi. Doubtless he knew what was wrong, or at least suspected, but he let Miyoshi keep his dignity intact. He sat back down instead, and glanced down at Yoru, who gave him a very offended look and did not deign to jump back into his lap. Hatano shrugged the cat’s slight off and smirked at Miyoshi. “I was telling you how I figured out how to make an uncrackable code.”

“No such thing,” Miyoshi instantly responded.

“There is too such a thing,” said Hatano. “Or at least, a code that’s uncrackable to a certain group of people.”

“Go on,” said Miyoshi.

“You use an obscure, indigenous, dead, or dying language as the base,” Hatano explained. 

“What, like Latin?” asked Miyoshi skeptically.

“No, don’t be stupid,” huffed Hatano. “Too damn many people understand Latin worldwide. Even if they don’t technically speak it, they’ve studied it enough that they can read it pretty fluently, and can understand it or translate it. Your base language needs to be more obscure. Like, for instance, the Sioux language.”

“The Sioux language,” Miyoshi repeated. Mostly because it took him several seconds to remember what that was. “The language of one of the Native American tribes?”

“Yes,” said Hatano. “The Americas are actually the ones who could work out my idea best. They have a number of options to draw from. All Japan’s really got is the Ainu language, and that’s not really useful since there are those Russian islands that have their own Ainu dialects.”

“No,” Miyoshi agreed. He could see where Hatano was going with this idea, but Hatano was right. Japan really didn’t have any options for it. There was no point in making up a code based on an obscure language that could only be deciphered by people who spoke that language, if your enemies had access to native speakers of that language. “We wouldn’t want the Russians cracking our codes. Especially after we went through all the trouble of making them in another language. Perhaps if we were in control of Hawaii –”

“Nah. The US has had control of Hawaii for too long. Even if we did our own blitz attack and managed to snatch it from them, which we couldn’t, but even if we somehow did, their influence is too rooted in that island chain. Plenty of the locals would be sympathetic to the US. If they worked with US intelligence, they’d probably be able to crack our code. Plus there’s probably Americans who’ve learned to speak Hawaiian too.”

“It is a good idea,” said Miyoshi. “Pity there’s no way to make it work for us.”

Hatano probably wouldn’t have ever brought this up normally. Not unless he’d figured out a way to make his idea work. Miyoshi knew he’d seized on the topic as a distraction, and he appreciated it. That knowledge helped drive home the fact that he was . . . well, home. Warm, and surrounded by family, and safe from the storm outside.

* * *

Next chapter = big D-Family dinner! And more memories of Manchuria, but from a different point of view. (Remember a few fics back, how Yuuki-san sent Tazaki and Jitsui to go find Odagiri?)


	3. Chapter 3

It was at dinner when all of the spies were finally reunited. Odagiri and Jitsui came bustling back in right during that brief window between dusk and full dark. Both of them looked half frozen and miserable, with snow encrusting their clothes and hair. Hatano had been waiting for them. Well, waiting for Jitsui at least. He immediately set to helping Jitsui shed his icy clothes. Tazaki, who’d just happened to wander by, did the same for Odagiri. 

Tazaki couldn’t help but feel a little bit guilty, even though he knew there was no real reason to. He’d been in Odagiri and Jitsui’s company quite a bit over the past few months. First in Machuria, where he and Jitsui had been sent to extract Odagiri when he got in trouble. Then on the way home from Germany. They had literally crossed half the world together. So it sort of felt to Tazaki like he should be with them still. Suffering through whatever trials they had to go through, as a team. But they were going through this as part of an intense physical reconditioning regimen. Getting back in shape after being away from D-Agency for a year or more. Spies who remained in residence, like Tazaki, maintained their physical condition constantly and stayed at a Yuuki-approved standard.

“Are they back?” asked Odagiri, as Tazaki helped him struggle out of his coat.

“Yes,” Tazaki answered. “They’re in with Yuuki-san right now.”

“And probably will be for awhile,” Hatano added as he brushed the snow off Jitsui’s training coat and hung it on the rack they kept by the back door. “Don’t let Emma know. She and Fukumoto got back awhile ago. We don’t want her trying to bust down Yuuki-san’s door.”

“He would not be amused,” Jitsui agreed, but Tazaki caught a slight calculating gleam in his eye. Like he was debating the pros and cons of letting it slip and getting Emma in trouble. It was no secret Jitsui was not a fan of Emma. Or at least not a fan of how much Emma loved Hatano. 

Tazaki gave him a warning look, and saw Odagiri doing the same. Jitsui no doubt saw, but didn’t acknowledge them. Instead he wrapped his arms around Hatano and issued a demand.

“Warm me up.”

Jitsui ended up not letting the news slip to Emma, much to everyone’s relief. But Emma, sharp as she was, was able to figure out that something was up when the spies who were free to, sat down in the cafeteria for dinner. With no idea when Yuuki-san would finish up with Kaminaga and Amari, the house rule was to set a place for them and go ahead and eat without them.

“Why are there so many plates, Hatano-nii?” Emma asked after counting each setting using her fingers. “There are two too many.”

“Only two too many?” asked Hatano playfully, pretending to count the empty settings on his fingers too. “Not three?”

“Three with Yuuki-san’s plate,” said Emma. “But there are two others.”

“I wonder who they could be for?” asked Amari, timing his entrance remarkably well.

“Papa!” the little girl shrieked, immediately jumping down from her chair. “Papa, you’re home!”

Amari caught her and hoisted her up high. “Indeed I am! How’s my little girl? Were you good while Papa was gone?”

“Yes! I was good! Very good!” Emma promised.

“For everyone? Even Sakuma-san?”

“Yes, I was,” Emma lied, fairly convincingly. 

“You were? That makes me very happy to hear!”

Tazaki sent a quick look at Sakuma who looked rather disgruntled, but chose to remain silent. 

“I’m home too,” said Kaminaga, trailing Amari in. “Aren’t you glad to see Uncle Kaminaga too?”

“Yep!” Emma sang happily, but it was clear she only really had eyes for Amari. Kaminaga accepted his dismissal with his usual good nature and sat down in the empty seat by Tazaki.

“Welcome back,” Tazaki told him warmly.

“Thank you!” Kaminaga beamed.

“You’re just in time.”

“Most definitely. I hear this storm is going to be a big one. I would’ve hated to be stuck at an airfield, waiting it out.”

“Most likely you would have diverted to another city,” Miyoshi said.

“And I would have hated to be stuck in another city waiting it out too,” said Kaminaga. “Traveling after a snowstorm is always the worst. Everyone trying to get everywhere. Everything’s overbooked. Slushy streets and foul tempered shoppers.”

“Better to be home,” Tazaki agreed.

“Indeed!” Kaminaga flashed Tazaki a brilliant smile. 

A familiar light thumping caught everyone’s attention, and all eyes turned toward the cafeteria entrance, right before the door opened. In the old days, it had been extremely rare for Yuuki-san to join them for dinner. Their spymaster preferred to keep some distance between himself and his disciples. But after he began sending them out across the world, he’d relaxed somewhat. Him attending dinner with them became more common. Especially after he’d retrieved Hatano from France. But since Tazaki had gotten back from Germany, Yuuki-san hadn’t even joined them once. Tazaki understood that Yuuki was incredibly busy. Whenever he returned from a trip abroad, he’d often spend a week or two sequestered in his office. While he was in Germany, work had surely piled up. Maybe this was the light at the end of the tunnel for him. Perhaps now he’d finally gotten enough done that he could have some more down time. They could hope.

“Yuuki-san!” Hatano called out and waved. “Hi!”

Yuuki gave him a dry look, but played along. “Hello, Hatano.”

“Hi Yuuki-san!” chimed in Emma. “Look! Papa Amari is back!”

“So I see.” Yuuki limped to the remaining empty seat at the end of the table and took a seat, as Fukumoto filled a bowl of rice for him, and Hatano dished him out some soup. “Tazaki?”

“Yes?”

“Has any new information come to light about the storm?”

Tazaki shook his head. “I listened to the radio all afternoon. Nothing has changed. We’re still getting snow and lots of it.”

“Were you able to successfully top off our stores of fresh food, Fukumoto?” Yuuki asked next.

“Yes. Hatano helped.”

“We hit up all our egg connections this morning,” Hatano reported. 

“Then why were you out so late, shopping with Emma?” Yuuki wanted to know, his attention still focused on Fukumoto.

“We were making a few last minute purchases . . .” Fukumoto held out a moment longer, then confessed, sounding a bit embarrassed. “Treats mostly . . . to keep morale up in case we really are snowed in a whole week.”

“We found rice cakes shaped like rabbits!” said Emma happily.

Tazaki barely caught the smirk that flashed across Yuuki’s face for the briefest instant. “I’m pleased you were successful.”

“Me too!” Emma sang.

“Yuuki-san? Some fish?” Miyoshi held the platter out for Yuuki so that he could serve himself.

For the rest of dinner, the conversation became more relaxed. Yuuki didn’t ask anymore questions or give anymore orders until near the end, which the spies took as free reign to talk amongst themselves. They filled the silence with talk of their most recent travels, and with light hearted jests. And they filled their stomachs with the hearty dinner Fukumoto had cooked up in anticipation of Kaminaga’s and Amari’s return. Fried fish, roasted winter squash, pork and vegetable soup seasoned with miso, white rice, and potatoes boiled in thickened soy sauce made for a delicious, filling feast. Between their funds and connections, and Fukumoto’s cooking skills, D-Agency always ate better than most of the rest of the country. Even high ranking military officers. But this meal was particularly extravagant. Fukumoto had taken a big gamble that Amari and Kaminaga would be getting home today and pulled out all the stops. There was even dessert, courtesy of Hatano. Warm custard poured over baked fruit. 

The meal definitely fit the house’s celebratory mood. This was the first time that all the spies had been under the same room since Odagiri left, several years ago. Tazaki had never really thought that they’d all be back here together again. That they’d ever all be _home_ again. But here they were. It was definitely something to celebrate.

The meal began to wind down, but it was apparent that no one really wanted to leave the table. Not even Emma, though she had tired herself out with excitement and her head was drooping over her empty plate. Not even Yuuki-san, who had never stretched a meal out to last this long before. But in the end, Yuuki finally did have to leave the table to go back to his work, and before he did so, he issued a few final directives for the evening.

“Odagiri. Jitsui. Your physical reconditioning is postponed until the storm is over.”

Which made sense. They would be stuck in the agency for the duration of the storm, and while there were numerous ways of training there, with weights and such, most of the agency would probably be very cold for the majority of the time. Yuuki wouldn’t want to risk them pulling or tearing muscles.

“You will, however, be responsible for snow removal, beginning tonight. Before you shower, clear away whatever has already fallen on the back porch. Tomorrow, clear it again, as well as a path from our front door to the street.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Yes, Yuuki-san.”

“Kaminaga. When you have finished, return to my office. We have more to go over this evening, and tomorrow. Miyoshi, I want you there as well.”

Kaminaga and Miyoshi both voiced their assent as well. Then Yuuki took his leave. Unfortunately, the relaxed and carefree mood of the table went with him. Everyone still wanted to stay, but with tasks now hanging over their heads, and Yuuki actually waiting on Kaminaga and Miyoshi, they couldn’t just stay there talking idly. 

“We shouldn’t keep Yuuki-san waiting,” Kaminaga said, only a few minutes later. “But can I help clean up before I go?”

“It’s alright,” Fukumoto told him.

“I’ll help Fukumoto,” Tazaki volunteered quickly, seeing Amari had opened his mouth to volunteer as well. “You should all do what Yuuki-san asked you to. And you, should take Emma-chan to bed, Amari.”

“I can come back down –”

“No. It’s alright,” Tazaki assured him.

“Don’t worry,” said Hatano smugly. “I’ll supervise and make sure they do it right.” But contrary to his claims, Hatano ended up helping with cleanup. As they knew he would. He began transferring the leftover food into smaller dishes that would fit more easily into the ice box, as Tazaki cleared the plates, bowls, cups, and chopsticks, and Fukumoto filled the sink and began washing everything the other two brought over to him. Sakuma retreated to do some paperwork and Odagiri and Jitsui went to get bundled up in their coats before shoveling snow.

Again, Tazaki felt a twinge of guilt as he watched them leave. He felt like he should be going with them. Even though they wouldn’t be out too long. Not more than a few inches could have fallen over the past few hours. Between the two of them, they would be able to make short work of their task. But it was dark out now, so it was already much colder. And it would be uncomfortable. Especially tomorrow, if their coats got too damp and couldn’t dry during the cold night.

“Odagiri,” Tazaki called as his former traveling companions started to leave the cafeteria. “Feel free to wear my coat instead of yours. So there’s no risk of yours still being damp tomorrow morning. And Jitsui, perhaps Hatano will let you wear his?”

“Yeah, go for it,” Hatano said without hesitation.

Odagiri and Jitsui both gave grateful smiles and voiced their thanks, but Tazaki still felt guilty as they left. He knew it wasn’t really necessary. It had been much colder in Manchuria. They had all been so miserable there together . . .

* * *

_ Before his first mission to Manchuria, the previous winter, Tazaki had never known that you could be so cold that it literally hurt. Swimming in frigid water for D-Agency’s entry training had been horrible but bearable because of the knowledge that it was temporary, and there was an end in sight, a goal to meet and then it would all be over. Winter in Manchuria was worse. It was a constant, unrelenting painful chill that hit you the moment you stepped outdoors. The air itself was like knives, piercing every bit of exposed skin and then some. Dressing in layers only helped so much. _

_ Even though he’d been there once before in winter and knew what to expect, the cold still shocked Tazaki. He’d forgotten just how extreme it could be. And it was clear that his warnings hadn’t prepared Jitsui. Jitsui who hated the cold. Tazaki saw Jitsui’s eyes bulge the moment he stepped outside their ship’s cabin, after their ship docked in the port. The poor boy looked at Tazaki in disbelief._

_ “You lied to me.”_

_ “I told you it was going to be cold,” Tazaki protested._

_ “You said there wouldn’t be snow.”_

_ “Oh . . .” Tazaki glanced at the shore sheepishly. “There’s usually not. Snow in these parts is rare, despite the temperature. The winds are usually too dry. We’re just unlucky.”_

_ Jitsui looked like he wanted to cry. Tazaki quickly turned away. _

_ “Come on,” he said, ushering Jitsui forward. “Standing here does us no good.” They had a mission, which was good. It gave them something to focus on. But they probably would have never come to this horribly cold place if they didn’t have a mission. Odagiri had better be grateful when they found him. Assuming he was still alive. _

_ Details on what had happened were unclear, but time had been of the essence, which was why Yuuki was sending them in nearly blind. It would be up to them to piece together what happened. Though if they could find Odagiri first, he could fill them in and save them some steps. All they knew was that the higher ranking military officers in Manchuria had turned on him and he had escaped as they tried to apprehend him. Chances were decent that he had been caught spying, and it wouldn’t matter to the meatheads in the military that he was spying for Japan. But then, chances were just as high that he was being used as a scapegoat by the higher ranking officers. All Tazaki really knew was that Odagiri had better still be alive. Jitsui and Odagiri may have never been extremely close, but Tazaki had the feeling that if their prodigal brother had been killed in this . . . whatever this was, Jitsui was likely to want a pound of flesh . . . and then some. Honestly, Tazaki wouldn’t be surprised if Jitsui lit their headquarters on fire before they left the country. It would serve the double purpose of exacting his revenge and providing him with some warmth in this frozen desert, don’t die, don’t kill be damned._

_ Getting off the ship took awhile. Military personnel disembarked first. Tazaki and Jitsui were undercover as civilians. They had multiple identities prepared, but the ones they decided to use, for now, were as journalists. It was one of the easier professions to fake, and gave them an excuse to be nosy, though if they had to, they could switch things up. Tazaki couldn’t help but wish that they’d prepared some military identities though, as they stood in line to get off the ship, shivering, hands jammed as far into their pockets as they could get them, their luggage resting at their feet. By the time they finally did get through, Tazaki knew that what they would be able to do would be very limited. He could barely feel his feet and Jitsui struggled to pick up his bag, fingers numb and refusing to obey him. They’d been out long enough that they were at risk for frostbite. _

_ As much as Tazaki wanted to head directly to one of the safehouses that he himself had set up, or a nearby motel, he knew that they needed to get out of the cold immediately. Luckily, there were a number of suitable buildings close by the wharf. Cheap inns and restaurants. Tazaki dragged Jitsui into the closest tea shop, where they had to jostle their way through crowds of other passengers from the ship who’d had the same idea. They managed to snag two seats, side by side, at the counter, and Tazaki placed an order for two mugs of hot coffee. He knew Jitsui preferred tea, but the coffee mugs were bigger. They’d help warm up their hands faster. Plus the caffeine would give them a boost. Tazaki had the feeling they’d need that now._

_ Jitsui was silent as they waited for their drinks. Probably too frozen to talk. He did give Tazaki a half-numb, half curious look as they were waiting, but was shivering so hard he probably couldn’t form words even if he wanted to._

_ “We’re going to be limited by how much cold we can tolerate,” said Tazaki. He kept his voice low even though it was unlikely they could be heard over the bustle and many conversations of the tea shop. “We’ll warm up here then head to the office. Sound good?”_

_ Jitsui nodded his assent. He’d already made it clear on the trip that he was content to follow Tazaki’s lead. This was his first mission abroad, and Tazaki had been here multiple times and knew the lay of the land. _

_ Thankfully, their drinks arrived quickly. Only then did both spies peel their gloves off. The tea shop wasn’t really warm. It was chilly at best. Much better than the temperature outside, but colder than D-Agency on a typical winter day. It was only with a hot beverage in their hands they could actually warm up. The coffee itself was actually pretty horrible. It was watery and weak like they’d reused the grinds, but it was hot enough to burn going down their throat, instantly warming them up._

_ “I didn’t expect this,” Jitsui admitted after taking several gulps. “This is worse than I could ever have imagined. How can anyone live in this place?”_

_ There was more to his question than the face value of it. What Jitsui really wanted to know was, was there really a chance that Odagiri could still be alive? Surely no one could survive outdoors in this cold for long, and Odagiri was on the run. Tazaki was worried too. Whether or not Odagiri managed to survive would depend on how good the shelter he’d been able to find was. _

_ “I wondered the same thing, the last time the boss sent me here to interview one of our esteemed colonels in the dead of winter,” Tazaki said, putting on a false show of patriotism. “But our men are strong. We can survive anywhere, no matter the odds. That is the difference between us and those who stand against us. We’re superior by both training and nature.”_

_ Odagiri was resourceful. He was a member of D-Agency, no matter what his resignation papers said. He would have found a way to survive. They might not know where yet, but Tazaki and Jitsui were resourceful too. They would find their friend and bring him home._

* * *

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!


	4. Chapter 4

Jitsui’s fingers were numb inside his gloves by the time he and Odagiri finished shoveling the first few inches of snow off the back porch. More had fallen than he’d expected in such a short amount of time, but it wasn’t really the amount that was the problem. It was the fact that it was night. The absence of the sun meant much lower temperatures. 

Odagiri did offer to let Jitsui off the hook in exchange for a future favor, and do the rest of the shoveling himself, but Jitsui declined. He hated the cold but he refused to be ruled by it. He knew it was one of his biggest weaknesses and doubted the others would really think any less of him if he took Odagiri up on that offer, but he didn’t want to give into his weakness. It was a matter of pride.

Still, he was very glad when they finally finished up. When he was able to stumble inside and shed his gloves and hang up Hatano’s coat, then shuffle toward the lounge where the fire was blazing.

“Jitsui,” said Odagiri, disapprovingly, grabbing his shoulder to keep him from entering the lounge. “If you’re planning on showering you should do so now. It will be worse after you get warm.”

“I know,” said Jitsui reluctantly. He really wanted to go throw himself down in front of the fireplace. He’d been hoping Hatano would be waiting for him in the lounge so he could latch onto his partner and leach heat from him, but oddly enough, Tazaki and Fukumoto were the only ones there. His confusion was probably clear on his face, because Tazaki noticed and must have guessed that Jitsui was having a hard time thinking of reasons Hatano wouldn’t be here, in the warmest room in the house right now.

“Hatano already took himself to bed,” Tazaki called to Jitsui, not even pausing in his card trick practice. “I think he must have been tired.” 

Concern gripped Jitsui, and he nodded and left the lounge without another word.

In the summer of last year, at the tail end of his mission in France, Hatano had received several successive head injuries. The first one he’d bounced back from fairly quickly, but the second one had been bad enough to be life threatening. Over half a year later, he still had some complications from those injuries. The main one being exhaustion. Sometimes he’d be fine one minute, perfectly alert and bright eyed, then the next minute he was slurring his speech struggling to keep his eyes open, and on the brink of passing out. Those episodes had gotten much less frequent, thankfully, but were proof that Hatano was not yet fully recovered. Jitsui hated that there wasn’t a single thing he or any of them could do to help Hatano during those times. Head injuries had their own healing time, but Jitsui still wanted to be there for him.

He followed Odagiri to the upstairs bathroom where the communal showers were and quickly stripped down. It was chilly that far away from the fireplace, and the electric heat barely reached up here. Coming in directly from the cold it wasn’t so bad, but getting under the water was cold and uncomfortable. It took a few minutes to get lukewarm on most winter days, and D-Agency was prone to running out if too many people tried to shower in a short amount of time. But Jitsui was in a hurry tonight and didn’t bother waiting for the water to warm up, knowing that he might very well be waiting futilely. 

He stood under the shower head and braced himself before turning it on. Cold water crashed over him, making him cringe, but he forced himself to endure it for a good twenty seconds before turning it off and grabbing the soap and his wash cloth. He began soaping himself up and scrubbing quickly, washing away any last trace of the sweat he’d broken while shoveling snow. He was about to turn the frigid water back on to rinse away the soap, but before he could, the bathroom door opened and Fukumoto walked in holding a steaming metal bucket.

“I heated some water on the stove,” Fukumoto told them. “It’s hot but it won’t burn you. I have one more pail to bring up.”

Odagiri motioned for Jitsui to take it. He had only just undressed, and had turned on one of the showerheads to let the water warm up a bit. Instead of letting it flow down the drain, however, he’d pushed a metal tub beneath it and was letting it fill with water. Smart. They did need to keep an emergency supply of clean water in case they lost power or the pipes froze.

“Thank you,” Jitsui said quickly, then clenched his teeth again to keep them from chattering. He took the bucket from Fukumoto then walked back to the shower and poured it over his head, savoring the warmth. Too quickly, it was over, leaving Jitsui even colder than before. He grabbed his towel and began drying himself as quickly as he could. As soon as he wasn’t dripping horribly anymore, he wrapped his towel around his waist and made a beeline to the dorm. 

The blackout curtains that usually covered the windows were open, letting pale white light in. That made it easier for Jitsui to retrieve his sleep clothes from his foot locker. Then, once he was dressed, Jitsui walked over to the window and took a moment to peer outside. The snow was really coming down now. Even harder than it had been while he and Odagiri were shoveling. Jitsui raised his hands to close the curtains then changed his mind. He actually liked the way the light reflected off the snow and streamed in through the window. The way that it made the night look bright. It was one of the few things he did like about snow. He decided that he’d enjoy it now, as he curled up with Hatano and fell asleep. One of the others could close the curtains when they went to bed if it bothered them.

So he walked over to his bed. Hatano was already in it, laying on his stomach, underneath the combined blankets from both their beds. Jitsui sat on the edge of the bed and felt a surge of wamth, looking down at his best friend. Now boyfriend. Worried though he was about Hatano, there was nowhere else he would rather be on a cold winter’s night than here with him. He reached out and rested his hand on the back of Hatano’s head. His hair was always so soft.

Then Hatano rolled over, surprising Jitsui, who’d thought that he was in the grips of head injury induced exhaustion. But Hatano smiled up at him, only looking a little tired, his eyes plenty alert. “Hey.”

“Hey,” Jitsui replied. “Are you alright? I thought your head injury might be acting up. You went to bed so early . . .”

“I was warming it up for you,” said Hatano. “I figured all you’d really want to do was curl up and be warm after you finished shoveling and got a shower. Or maybe if Amari and Kaminaga were free, stay up and talk, but that’s not gonna happen. Not tonight.”

No. Kaminaga would be debriefing with Yuuki-san until late, most likely. And Amari would probably be camping out in Emma’s room.

“How thoughtful of you,” said Jitsui.

Hatano yawned then lifted the edge of the covers. “Get in.”

Jitsui wasted no more time doing just that. Hatano scooched over and pulled Jitsui so that his body came to rest in the warm spot that Hatano had been laying in, just previously. Then Hatano smiled impishly and crawled on top of Jitsui, resting on top of him like a very warm, heavy blanket.

“How’s this?” Hatano asked.

“Bliss,” Jitsui said, smiling as Hatano nestled his head against Jitsui’s shoulder. The bed was nice and toasty now, thanks to Hatano’s preparations. When Hatano first crawled into it, it had certainly been as chilly as the rest of the room. Jitsui’s feet and head were the only parts of him that could feel that chill now. He kicked out slightly with his feet, so that he could tangle them in the wool blanket that Hatano had put under the sheet, at the foot of the bed for just that reason. Then he pulled up the top cover so that it came up to his and Hatano’s chins, and he turned his face so it was pressed into Hatano’s hair.

There was really nothing like being this warm, in bed, when it was so, so cold outside. 

It made no sense that Jitsui’s thoughts suddenly drifted to Manchuria. That mission had been months ago and seemed like a world away, and Jitsui was warm now, and safe, and home with all his fellow spies. There was no reason for his mind to take him back there. He tried to force those thoughts from his mind and focus on the here and now. The last thing he wanted was for that cold to follow him into his dreams.

* * *

_ After leaving the tea shop by the wharf, Jitsui and Tazaki made their way to a motel where they each booked a room. Normally, that would have been followed by a sweep of their rooms for bugs, but half the day was already gone. Jitsui stashed his stuff in his own frigid room, after removing a few essentials hidden in his luggage, then went to Tazaki’s. He didn’t want to think about how he was going to sleep tonight in a room this cold. Even D-Agency was warmer than this._

_ “That took you long enough,” Tazaki said curtly, playing his role as Jitsui’s superior, in case there were any listening devices in his room. “May I remind you that the company isn’t paying us to take a luxury vacation.”_

_ “Sorry sir,” Jitsui said dutifully._

_ “The day’s already half gone. This blasted cold makes everything take longer than usual. But there’s no helping it. We need to get what work we can done today. I will see if I can arrange for a late afternoon interview with some officers. You, go find out the schedule of events at the theatre, the casts of the plays, and put together a short list of who’s who. I’ll make the decision on who among them is worth interviewing.”_

_ Translation: Tazaki was going to check with some of his military contacts for any word of what had happened. Jitsui was to check the theatre. It had shut down some months ago, when the army had abruptly drafted most of the male actors and gutted the place for scrap metal, but the building still stood. And that was one of the places that Tazaki had flagged as most likely for Odagiri to be laying low. _

_ One thing was for certain. Odagiri wasn’t on the streets. It was way too cold for that. Would have been even without the snow. Even the local homeless population couldn’t survive outdoors during winter. Besides, Odagiri was a man of D-Agency. He would have had a contingency plan for if things went bad. Sadly, he had never shared that contingency plan with Tazaki, but Tazaki hadn’t exactly been his handler or anything. But still, they could make a few good guesses about what Odagiri would do. _

_ “And after I check the theatre?” Jitsui asked._

_ “You come back here, boy. There won’t be time for anything else. The theatre’s halfway across town and it gets dark fast this time of year. You don’t want to be out after dark here.”_

_ Jitsui grimaced. “Alright then. I’m off.” _

_ Before heading back outside, he had to put back on his gloves, hat, hood, and scarf. The scarf, he wrapped not just around his neck, but also around his lower face, all the way up to his nose. The last thing he wanted was a frostbitten nose. As he made his way through the snow clogged streets, others were dressed much the same. But even dressed like this, Jitsui still felt the cold like a knife. He mentally cursed Odagiri for putting him in this situation. What had he been thinking, leaving D-Agency in the first place? That the military was made of better men? If that was the case, why had he left his precious military in the first place? _

_ Traveling on foot was really the only way to get around at the moment. A foot of snow, banked higher in places, covered everything, even the streets. And since Manchuria didn’t usually see much snow because of the dry winds that blew through it, they weren’t equipped to handle so much all at once. No one was out who didn’t have to be, and Jitsui passed abandoned car after abandoned car that had gotten stuck in the snow. _

_ He was thoroughly miserable only minutes after leaving the motel. It took him nearly an hour to make it to the theatre, and by that time he felt like he could cheerfully kill someone for crossing him. Or at least that killing someone would make him happy, or at least feel better. Not he could easily manage it, in the state he was in. His limbs felt like lead and his feet were prickling painfully. His fingers were numb and it took so much effort just to breathe. Doing any sort of violent act was sure to be difficult and tedious now. So on second thought, having to kill someone would probably put him in an even worse mood._

_ The theater was locked up tight, as expected. Whoever owned the building obviously wanted to minimize damages that could be cause by the weather, squatters, and looters. Jitsui didn’t see any obvious signs of anyone breaking into the building, but that didn’t mean Odagiri hadn’t. And it made it less likely that the military police had beat him there to look for D-Agency’s wayward spy. So either Odagiri had kept the fling he had with that actress hidden from his coworkers in the military, or they hadn’t realized his connection to the abandoned building . . . or hadn’t realized that this building made the perfect place to lay low for a spell._

_ Idiots all of them._

_ Even in the state that he was in, Jitsui still managed to get inside without much trouble. People tended not to take as many precautions locking up on the second floor or higher. Jitsui found a nice easy to climb drain pipe that took him to the roof. And while the door up there was locked, for whatever reason, it was a cheap lock and the door frame wasn’t reinforced. Jitsui smashed it in. Something he would take criticism for if the others ever found out, but his fingers were too numb to pick the lock now, and he had to do what he had to do. _

_ After closing the door behind him, Jitsui crept inside and crouched for a moment. He let his eyes adjust to the dim light inside as he peeled off his gloves and rubbed his hands together, desperately trying to warm them up before he did anything else. There was no guarantee that he was alone in this building, or that the only other person who might be here was Odagiri. It was just as likely that some of the city’s homeless population had found their way inside too, and homeless people could be unpredictable. He breathed on his hands as he rubbed them, to try and hasten the process, and finally, after a few minutes, felt confident that if he had to, he could pull the trigger of a pistol. Speaking of which, he drew the one he’d brought with him out from under his coat, so that he had it at the ready. Then he made his way a bit deeper into the theatre. _

_ He’d entered into some kind of overhead staging area. Pieces of scenery meant to be suspended and lowered down onto the stage were stored here. A golden moon, a gawdy sun, a cloud with an attached swing. There was also an elaborate pulley system. Jitsui crept over to it and, after double checking that his position was secure, and that no one could attack him without coming into his clear line of sight, tapped out a signal on the metal of one of the pulleys with his gun. Four steadily paced taps, a long pause, then two fast taps. Not too loud. He didn’t want to make anymore noise than he had to. Though after waiting for several moments and not getting a response, Jitsui repeated the signal, a bit louder._

_ Then below him he heard movement. A slight grating noise. A trap door opening, Jitsui was pretty sure. He let his muscles tense so he could decide whether or not to flee or attack, but then he heard it. A response to his signal. Three fast taps, a pause, then three slow taps. Odagiri’s identifying signal._

_ Jitsui gave another signal then. Two fast taps, a pause, then two more fast taps. The signal that as far as he knew it was safe. Odagiri gave the same signal back. Then:_

_ “Jitsui?” Odagiri called out softly._

_ “Hey,” Jitsui called back, relieved that this had gone so easily. “You okay?”_

_ “More or less.”_

_ Down below, Jitsui saw shadows shifting as Odagiri climbed out from the trap door under the stage._

_ “Should I come down?” asked Jitsui. “Or will you come up?”_

_ “Can you come down?”_

_ “Alright.” The cloud with the swing looked like it was still hooked up to the pulley system. “Look out below.” He pushed the hanging scenery out of the rafters instead of taking the time to figure out which crank and pulley did what. It dropped like a stone until the ropes it was suspended on ran out of slack then bounced and swung wildly for several seconds before leveling off. Jitsui then slid down one of the ropes holding it up, then climbed down the scenery when he reached it until he got to the swing. The swing turned out to be suspended maybe ten feet above the stage, but that was no obstacle for Jitsui. By now he was warmed up enough that it wasn’t too hard to grip it with his hands, hang from it, then drop and land lightly on the ground below. _

_ “Jitsui . . .” Odagiri looked haggard. Pale, with dark rings under his eyes. No wonder, if he’d been hiding out here for the past few days. It was barely warmer in here than outside, and only because there was no wind chill in here. “What are you doing here?”_

_ Jitsui did his best not to grimace at the stupid question. “Looking for you, obviously. We were sent to extract you.”_

_ “What?” Odagiri looked like he couldn’t believe it. “But I – Yuuki-san sent you?”_

_ “Yes.” Jitsui realized what the issue was now. Odagiri hadn’t been expecting anyone to come for him. At least not to save him. He’d left D-Agency. Even if he’d become an informant for them after his departure, he’d still resigned. He couldn’t wrap his head around the idea that he was important enough to D-Agency that they’d send someone to save him. “Ready to come home?”_

_ “I – home . . .”_

_ “Are you injured?” Jitsui asked, suddenly wondering if this was more than just surprise. _

_ “Er . . . I got grazed by a bullet and I lost some blood,” Odagiri said. This topic seemed a bit easier for him than the idea that he had people who cared enough to come for him. “And I haven’t had much to eat for the past few days. I’ve had to ration –”_

_ “Here.” Jitsui had brought a candy bar with him for this exact reason. “Where were you shot? Let me see the wound.”_

_ It turned out, thankfully, that the wound wasn’t serious. A graze on his arm that had bled a lot before Odagiri staunched it. He’d done a good job keeping it clean. Odagiri ate the candy bar while Jitsui checked his wound over then rewrapped it._

_ “We need to leave soon if we want to get back to the motel by dark,” Jitsui said once he was finished rewrapping the wound. “Which I would much prefer to staying the night here. Since the motel at least has the semblance of heat.”_

_ “I’m ready,” Odagiri said, and he struggled to get his coat back on. Jitsui gripped his shoulder to stop him, then assisted, carefully lifting Odagiri’s arm and threading the sleeve over Odagiri’s arm so Odagiri didn’t irritate his wound. “Thanks.”_

_ “You’re welcome.” Jitsui pulled his scarf back up, rewrapping it around his face, all the way up to his eyes, then put back on his gloves. So far, so good. As far as he was concerned, the mission was half finished. He had found Odagiri alive. And in the first place he’d looked. Tonight they would decide how they would get out of this damned frozen country. They would be back home at D-Agency before they knew it. He felt certain of that in the moment._

_ Jitsui really should have known it would not be that easy._


	5. Chapter 5

They woke to a world that had been blanketed in white. A world that was quiet and still. The only movement was the snowflakes falling from the sky. The normal hustle and bustle of the city was gone. It was as though all sound had been smothered by the snow.

It was the perfect morning to sleep late. Snug and warm in their beds, despite the chilly air that nipped at their faces. Most of them did sleep in late. Even Sakuma, for a change. But several of them did have to get up early, or at least at an hour that most of the world would consider to be on time.

Yuuki himself rose earliest. In the white-blue glow of the early morning, he slunk down to the kitchen to make himself coffee before getting started. He’d faced a few moments of internal conflict about whether or not to change out of his warm dressing gown, but in the end, propriety had won out, and he’d changed into his usual three piece suit. He was glad of his decision when, right before his water finished heating, Kaminaga padded in, looking like he’d rather be back in bed.

“Good morning,” Kaminaga said politely, then looked hopefully at the coffee press that Yuuki had just filled.

Yuuki had intended to take the whole pot with him back to his office, but he wasn’t heartless. So he waited the few minutes that it took for the coffee to brew, pressed it, and then allowed Kaminaga to pour himself a cup. 

“I’m working in the lounge today, if you need me,” Kaminaga told Yuuki. “By the fire. It’s too bad about this snow. I wanted to check in on the Iwanatsu residence surveillance.”

“That will keep. Especially with this snow.”

“True enough.”

“I will be in my office if you need anything.” Permission for Kaminaga to come get another mug of coffee, since Yuuki was taking the rest of it back with him. 

The next to arise were Jitsui and Odagiri, but they didn’t get up until almost midmorning, and they rose more reluctantly than Yuuki and Kaminaga had. Probably because while Yuuki and Kaminaga had important work to do, Jitsui and Odagiri had snow shoveling. And everyone hates snow shoveling. They both lay awake for awhile before actually dragging themselves out of their beds. The warmth was lulling and seductive, and the knowledge of what was waiting for them was enough to make them want to just go back to sleep.

Jitsui especially struggled to get up. His hatred of the cold, combined with how nice it felt underneath his blankets with Hatano made it all the more difficult. Sometime during the night, Hatano had rolled off him, but they’d both kept hold of each other, so now they lay on their sides, facing one another, legs tangled together, Jitsui’s arms wrapped around Hatano, while Hatano’s hands clutched at Jitsui’s sleep shirt. 

Jitsui would have been happy to just lay there all morning, basking in the warmth and enjoying Hatano’s nearness. But Odagiri had to ruin it by getting up to go start his day, and the task of shoveling snow they’d been assigned. So Jitsui had to get up too. 

He carefully extracted himself from Hatano’s hold, untangling their legs, and gently prying Hatano’s fists from his sleep shirt. Then Hatano just twisted his wrists so he could grab Jitsui’s and pull him back down.

“Stay,” Hatano whispered, eyes still closed.

“Can’t,” Jitsui whispered back. “Work.”

Hatano grumbled softly and wordlessly and didn’t let go, so Jitsui had to pry his fingers loose all over again. That made Hatano open his droopy eyes to give Jitsui a mock reproachful look. Jitsui shook his head but smiled at his partner’s adorable antics, then crawled out of bed and carefully tucked the blankets back around Hatano to keep the warmth in. 

“Sleep,” Jitsui bid his boyfriend and gave him a quick kiss on the forehead. Then he hurried to get dressed and follow Odagiri outside to shovel snow.

Hatano waited only until he heard the front door close behind Jitsui and Odagiri before he got up too. If the radio had been right, they would have gotten nearly a foot of snow overnight. That amount would double over the course of the day and it would still be falling well into the night. Whether the storm would change course and fizzle out over the next few days like the radio predicted, or bounce around between the mountain ranges surrounding the Tokyo area like Tazaki was predicting remained to be seen, but no matter which prediction was right, both agreed that losing power later today or during the night was a likely possibility. So Hatano was making breakfast this morning, both because he knew Jitsui would appreciate a nice warm meal after he finished shoveling snow, and because it might not be possible to make it tomorrow. And because pancakes were the perfect snowy morning breakfast. 

He timed his cooking quite well and was flipping the last few pancakes out of the pan when Jitsui and Odagiri shuffled back inside, shivering, their hair silver from the snow. Their eyes lit at the sight of their breakfast and they wasted no time filling their plates and topping their stacks with honey and toasted nuts. Kaminaga joined them right as Hatano was heading upstairs with a plate for Yuuki-san.

The others began trickling into the cafeteria after that, drawn in by the delicious scents. By the time everyone was finished, and Tazaki and Miyoshi, unasked, began clean up, it was around the time when most people would have been eating lunch.

Amari took Emma and Frate outside to play in the snow for a bit once they were finished eating. Sakuma went to his office to work. Everyone else made their way to their favorite lounge, where Kaminaga already had his work spread out by the fireplace. When a fire was lit there, the lounge was the warmest room in the agency, with the infirmary on the other side of the wall a close second. And since Miyoshi had gotten home from Germany, a fire was always lit there these days. 

Kaminaga got back to his work, a fresh mug of tea in hand. Tazaki crawled between Kaminaga’s papers and the fireplace, and sprawled out on the floorboards there for an early afternoon nap. Jitsui curled up in the armchair closest to the fire to read, as Hatano sat on the floor at his feet, and went through his usual stretching routine so that he could maintain his flexibility. Odagiri and Fukumoto set up and started a game of go, and Miyoshi sat in the other armchair and alternated between reading a book, chasing Yoru off his lap, and trying to sneak glances at Kaminaga’s work. Before too long, Amari, Emma, and Frate joined them.

“It’s really coming down out there,” Amari told them as he bundled Emma up in a blanket and put her near the fire so that she could warm up after playing in the snow.

“We made a snowman,” Emma told them happily. “And a snow dog!”

“Sounds like fun,” Kaminaga said as he shifted his papers away, so they wouldn’t be hit with drops of the snow that were melting off of Emma.

Overall it was a rare lazy afternoon for most of them. Tazaki turned the radio on after he woke up from his nap, and they all listened to the news and weather forecast, for the most part tuning out the imperial propaganda that dominated the airwaves. Kaminaga regularly made trips upstairs to check in with Yuuki about various parts of his work. After one check in, Yuuki requested that Miyoshi be sent up to him, and after that Miyoshi was given some paperwork to deal with too. Emma was kept occupied with stories and card tricks until midafternoon, when she settled down for a nap. Around that time Fukumoto left the lounge to begin preparing their dinner, and Odagiri tagged along with him. 

Right before dinner, Odagiri and Jitsui went outside to shovel snow again. Normally when it snowed, they would have waited until it was finished snowing before bothering to shovel but if they’d tried that this time there would have been far too much snow to deal with. In the places that they hadn’t shoveled that morning it was nearly up to Jitsui’s waist. He and Odagiri cleared the walkways as quickly as they could, then had to change their trousers before dinner because so much snow had gotten stuck to their pants legs that when they got back inside it started melting, soaking the fabric through. 

For dinner that night, there was hot rice, like always, tamagoyaki, braised potatoes from last night that had been reheated, and squash soup. They were lucky that the power hadn’t gone out or all that wouldn’t have been possible. It had flickered several times that afternoon, but had always stayed on. It was anyone’s guess how long it would last, but more likely than not, they would lose it sometime during the night. For now though, they enjoyed it while they had it. Both the electric heat and the ability to cook and heat food.

Yuuki joined them. And though that night’s dinner was not as lively as the previous night’s feast, spirits were still high. Possibly higher, because in a way . . . it felt almost like a normal family dinner. 

After clean up, the spies each went their own separate ways: to shower, to wind down and get ready for bed, to work or read a bit more, or to prepare as best as they could for whatever needed to be done tomorrow. Though in the end, they all ended up going to bed early. Even Yuuki. The snow made them all feel at least a little bit languid. Knowing how cold it was outside, and that there was nowhere they could go, even if they wanted to leave the agency, since the rest of the city was snowed in too, decreased any sense of urgency and made it just seem like the perfect night to be lazy. To go to bed early and sleep in late, as the snow kept falling, blanketing the world in pure white. 

Unfortunately, that knowledge also kept a few spies from sleeping soundly. Their memories of snow in a different place, not too long ago, were still stirring in the back of their minds. And when both the power and the fire went out late in the night, the cold crept in, and with it, darker memories.

* * *

_ Pretending to be a corpse for several days straight was hands down the worst role Miyoshi had ever taken on. He was in an immense amount of pain the entire time. And he was cold the entire time. He probably would have been in more pain if not for the cold. It kept him numb. And kept the German hospital staff from realizing that he wasn’t rotting the way a corpse that wasn’t kept in cold storage tended to do. The cold was probably what saved him. But somehow, Miyoshi didn’t hate it any less. _

_ Nights in the hospital had been the worst. At least that was what he thought at the time. Then he was buried alive._

_ He’d thought that might be warmer. He’d read of dwellings in various countries that were build into or under the earth to help the inhabitants survive extreme temperatures. He’d also read stories of people losing their way in snowstorms and taking shelter in caves and surviving in them, even if they weren’t able to build themselves a fire. So Miyoshi really thought that he would finally begin warming up while he waited for Yuuki and whoever he called in to help to dig him out of his grave. He was sorely disappointed._

_ Even worse than the cold was the dark. Miyoshi had never faced darkness like this before. Even on the darkest nights, or when he got stuck in a windowless room when the lights went off, or when he was blindfolded for a training task at D-Agency, there had always been some sliver of light, or at least the knowledge that it was there, just out of reach. In his coffin was only darkness. Unending black darkness. It felt like it was swallowing him whole. _

_ Miyoshi hadn’t been afraid of the dark since he was a small child, nor was he claustrophobic . . . but suddenly his whole world had been narrowed down to a box of blackness that was pressing in on him from all sides and he couldn’t escape. Couldn’t even move. Panic began to set in. Miyoshi tried to calm himself, tried to remember all the tricks he’d been taught at D-Agency to do so, but that place felt so far away, and it all happened so long ago, and all that there was now was cold and darkness and he couldn’t breathe!_

_ He found himself choking, wheezing, gasping, and he knew that he was hyperventilating and that he needed to stop before he wasted too much of the precious oxygen that was sealed in the coffin with him, but he couldn’t control himself. He’d never felt so helpless. He was sure that he was going to die there. How long had he been buried now? Far too long. Yuuki should have come for him by now if he was planning to . . . which meant Yuuki wasn’t coming for him. He’d been abandoned and was going to die alone –_

* * *

“Miyoshi! Miyoshi, wake up!”

“No!” Miyoshi’s eyes opened to darkness and he lashed out at the shadows that were trying to claim him. 

“Miyoshi!”

No . . . that wasn’t the darkness calling him. That . . . that was Kaminaga.

“Light,” Miyoshi pleaded. “Please – the light –”

He heard swift footsteps as Kaminaga bolted to the cabinet where miscellaneous supplies were kept. A moment later there was the sizzle and sulphuric smell of a match being let. Then the warm glow of the lantern Kaminaga lit chased away the darkness all at once. And Miyoshi saw Kaminaga staring at him with . . . well he wasn’t sure what that expression was. He’d never seen Kaminaga look quite like that before.

That sat in silence for what seemed like forever, just staring at each other. Then Miyoshi’s adrenaline died down and he felt a shiver run through him.

“I’m sorry,” said Kaminaga. He grabbed the blankets off one of the other made up infirmary beds and rushed them over to Miyoshi, wrapping them around his shoulders and draping them so they completely enveloped Miyoshi’s body, only leaving his head exposed to the cold air. “It was my job to restoke the fire and I forgot. I just went to bed as soon as I finished up working. The electricity is out too. That’s why it’s so cold.”

“I . . . I see.” Miyoshi couldn’t even summon the energy to grimace at his stutter.

“The fire’s lit again. Want to sit by it and warm up a bit?” asked Kaminaga.

That sounded very appealing. Warmth. Light. Company. Miyoshi nodded

“I don’t need help,” he said, maybe a bit harshly when Kaminaga tried to help him off the infirmary bed. He adjusted his tone and added, “I’ve healed enough to do most things now. Even stairs and distance walking.”

“That’s good,” said Kaminaga. Instead of helping Miyoshi, he gathered up some of Miyoshi’s blankets to take with them. 

The two spies suspended their attempts at conversation as they walked through the short length of hall that took them to the spies’ favorite lounge. It shared a wall with the infirmary by design. The fire was crackling merrily and its heat was already spreading. It wouldn’t take long before the infirmary warmed up as well. Miyoshi and Kaminaga walked over to the hearth, where Kaminaga hesitated, waiting to see what Miyoshi would do. Instead of collapsing into one of the large, comfortable arm chairs that had been moved much closer than usual to the fire, Miyoshi just dropped down in front of it, the way cold-hating Jitsui always did. Kaminaga sat down beside him with a bit more refinement, and set the blankets down as close as he could to the fireplace without them being a fire hazard.

“Was I screaming?” Miyoshi asked, staring at the flames rather than Kaminaga.

“Not screaming so much as crying out. And not very loud. I wasn’t sure I heard you the first time or two,” answered Kaminaga.

“I see.” Miyoshi still had the blanket Kaminaga had wrapped around his shoulders. He let it open a bit in the front so that the fire’s warmth could reach him faster. And he waited for Kaminaga to ask questions, like he knew his friend wanted to. He was surprised when Kaminaga didn’t.

The other spy stretched out a bit, and kept his gaze on Miyoshi, but didn’t pry.

“I was undercover as a photographer in England,” he said instead, after several minutes had passed. “Running my own little photography studio. People there can be xenophobic, but the shop I inherited had a good reputation and so they accepted me well enough. I actually came to enjoy photography. And I realized that I’m pretty good at it.”

“I was undercover as an art dealer. I’m sure you weren’t good enough for me to have carried any of your pieces,” said Miyoshi.

“Don’t be such an elitist snob,” said Kaminaga. “You’ve never even seen my work!”

Miyoshi smirked.

“I’ll show you some of the photographs I’ve taken around here,” continued Kaminaga, not offended. “I’ve kept up with it as a hobby. Hey, maybe now that all of us are in residence I can get a full D-Agency group picture.”

“Yuuki-san won’t like that.”

“Maybe, maybe not. He hasn’t chided me for taking pictures of anyone of us except the time I took a picture of Hatano napping with his head against Yuuki-san’s shoulder.”

“What?”

“Oh yes. It was very cute. Right after we picked him and Hatano up from the port when they got back from France. But Yuuki-san wasn’t really annoyed about the picture. He just wanted to put a stop to us teasing Hatano before it started. That’s when he laid down the rule of no waking him up or saying anything that might make him not want to sleep when he needs to. But he might feel differently about taking a picture with every single one of us in it.”

“Hmm,” Miyoshi said noncommittally. Because it was a definite possibility that Yuuki would put a stop to a group picture since it could be a security risk, but it was equally possible that he wouldn’t mind. Yuuki-san did care about them all, and it was possible he was more sentimental than Miyoshi had initially thought. It did mean something that it never occurred to Miyoshi that Yuuki might leave him to die, or even kill him to tie up a loose end, until after the plan to save him was well in motion. “I . . . I was dreaming of Germany. Of the end of my time there. Specifically, when I was in my coffin, underground.”

When he was buried alive. But he couldn’t bring himself to phrase it like that.

“I’m sorry. That was probably my fault,” said Kaminaga.

“The cold didn’t help. But it’s not a problem you created,” said Miyoshi. He had been fighting back memories and panic of his brief stint underground for awhile now. Funnily enough, his fear hadn’t started until he was mostly recovered. But now it was threatening to overwhelm him. “The problem is with me. I need to overcome it before I can get back in the field.”

He expected a jab about how he’d have plenty of time. It was and had always been his and Kaminaga’s way to try to get one up on the other. They were competing for the position of Yuuki’s successor. Or at least they had been, but maybe that had changed too. Maybe, somewhere along the line, even though they both still wanted it and would work as hard as they could to obtain it, maybe they both accepted that if they didn’t get it, it would be okay . . . because they trusted the other to do the job just as well. That’s what Kaminaga’s response made Miyoshi think.

Because instead of a snide comment or a teasing remark, Kaminaga asked, “What do you need from me?”

The question took Miyoshi back. Even though he knew the answer.

“This . . .” Miyoshi knew what he meant, but realized that Kaminaga might not. But he couldn’t put it into words. He just couldn’t. Not right now. “Just . . . this” he motioned between him and Kaminaga helplessly.

When Kaminaga nodded, Miyoshi closed his eyes in relief. He wasn’t used to being vulnerable and weak. Even after months spent recovering from his near fatal injuries. He was used to being in control of both himself and every situation he was in. Now he had these flashbacks to deal with and it was beyond frustrating. At least Kaminaga was being good about it and not rubbing it in his face or trying so desperately to help that he made things worse. 

It was good to have people in his life that he knew he could always count on.

They sat in silence for a long while. At least here, in front of the crackling fire, with his friend by his side, the cold and dark seemed far, far away. 

* * *

Happy Holidays everyone! I hope that you have a wonderful week, whatever you choose to celebrate!

I’m adding a few footnotes in the comments section about cold weather and snow, since I was reminded that some people reading this are from tropical countries, and I want everything to make sense to everyone. And I’m doing it in the comment section so that no one sees that there are a few more paragraphs and then gets disappointed because they’re background information and not a real part of the fic. I think I’ll do snow this time and cold weather next time, because cold weather survival will be more relevant in Odagiri and Jitsui’s upcoming chapter. ;)


	6. Chapter 6

Odagiri woke up sometime during the night after the electricity went out. Most of the spies probably did at some point. Even under their blankets they could feel the change in temperature. Because while the heat was normally kept very low during the night, it wasn’t normally cut completely off. They didn’t want the pipes to freeze.

It was the change in temperature, rather than just the coldness that woke Odagiri up. He’d learned to sleep in colder temperatures than this, in Manchuria. Wearing double pairs of thick socks and mittens to bed did wonders for aiding sleep on cold nights. But this was probably the coldest that he had been at night since coming back to D-Agency, and Odagiri couldn’t help but feel slightly unsettled because of it.

He heard Kaminaga get up and sneak out of the dormitory . . . and fail to come back. Which meant he’d probably decided to sleep in the lounge, near the fire. Odagiri couldn’t blame him. He also heard when Jitsui woke up and started fidgeting in the bed he shared with Hatano, rearranging the blankets, pulling them tighter around him and his partner, trying to get warmer.

His fidgeting woke Hatano too, who asked in a whisper so soft that Odagiri almost missed it, “What’s wrong?”

“Cold,” whispered Jitsui back to him. “Power’s out.”

Odagiri then heard the rustle of blankets as Hatano moved too, trying to help Jitsui warm up. Perhaps unbuttoning his sleep shirt so there was less fabric between Jitsui and the heat his body radiated. Almost certainly pulling him closer and holding him tighter. Maybe pulling the blankets around Jitsui’s head like a hood. Odagiri had seen him do that before and couldn’t deny that it was quite cute. He felt a pang of jealousy. Not exactly because Hatano had Jitsui in his bed . . . well, kind of. He didn’t begrudge them their relationship. He was happy that they had found happiness with each other. But he found himself wishing that he had someone to share this cold night with too.

Come to think of it, last time he’d needed extra warmth to survive the night, it had been Jitsui who’d provided it. That was probably why he felt that twinge of jealousy now. Odagiri pulled his blankets up over his head, closed his eyes, and tried not to think about it . . . which of course only meant that he couldn’t help but think about it.

* * *

_ It was a longer walk back to the motel where Jitsui and Tazaki were staying than Odagiri would have preferred making even if there weren’t snow on the ground at that late hour. He knew they would be pushing it to get back before dark fell. Honestly, they would probably not make it before the sun set, but as long as they got there shortly after, it would be alright. But that depended on nothing going wrong, and Yuuki-san had taught them to always be ready for something to go wrong._

_ It was pure dumb, bad luck, plain and simple. Odagiri had guessed that the higher ups in the local military had ordered random sweeps of the city for him, and the lower ranked officers were complying to make it seem like they were doing something, but he would have bet money that they weren’t taking it that seriously. Slacking off an hour or two before they went off duty was the military’s way in Manchuria, especially this time of year when all anyone wanted to do was get home as soon as possible, eat, or at least drink something hot if they could afford it, and bury themselves under as many blankets as they had access to, preferably with company, if they could manage it. _

_ Even doing random sweeps, if they came across him, almost none of them would recognize him. There was nothing distinct about Odagiri’s face that would make it possible for someone to recognize him from a wanted poster sketch. Even if someone had seen him in passing, they would have had a hard time picking him out of a lineup. _

_ So when Odagiri and Jitsui turned the corner onto the block where their motel was located, and Odagiri ran smack into Lt. Marisaki Hideo, his former subordinate from the Manchurian general staff office, at the head of a small entourage of military police, he couldn’t believe his bad luck._

_ Hideo was just as shocked and clearly couldn’t believe his luck either. But Odagiri recovered from his surprise faster, as any D-Agency spy would. Before Hideo could open his mouth to order his arrest, Odagiri punched him in the face as hard as he could._

_ “Run,” he advised Jitsui, before Hideo could hit the snow covered ground or before Hideo’s comrades could react. And Jitsui, also a D-Agency spy, didn’t have to be told twice. No questions asked, no standing around in shock, Jitsui simply bolted back the way they’d come and Odagiri followed suite. Within seconds he had outpaced Jitsui. Which was just as well, because he knew this area. Jitsui did not. They got off the street, cut through a restaurant, shouldered their way past the kitchen staff, and exited through the back into an alley. _

_ “Fire escape,” Odagiri ordered Jitsui, while he himself ran to the back door of another building. A clothing shop, already closed for the evening. Odagiri kicked the door as hard as he could and broke the lock then forced the door in. He took a few steps inside so that there would be snow tracks right inside the door. Then he shuffled backwards, making sure that all his footprints were heading toward the door he’d just broken, until he was close enough to the fire escape that Jitsui had just leapt high enough to reach. _

_ It wasn’t the perfect escape plan. A trained spy pursuing them wouldn’t have fallen for it. Because the rungs of the fire escape ladder had been dusted with snow before Jitsui grabbed the bottom one. After getting a good hold on it and pulling himself up, he used the sides of the ladder to shimmy the rest of the way up to the roof. Odagiri did the same once Jitsui was out of the way. But he didn’t have time to fix the bottom rung and redust it with snow. The thundering sound of military boots against floorboards was right behind them. He barely made it to the top before several of the military police Hideo had been leading charged into the alley._

_ Odagiri ducked down out of sight and held his breath, and thankfully the officers took the bait._

_ “This way!” one shouted, and they all hurried through the busted in door._

_ As soon as they were gone, Odagiri and Jitsui were moving again. Racing toward the side of the building. Thankfully, the leap from the roof of that restaurant to the roof of the next was a short one. The next roof was further away though. Odagiri, in the lead, held up one hand as he ran to signal for Jitsui to slow down. Before he reached the edge of that roof, Odagiri skidded to a stop. He stomped down the snow, all the way to the edge, then turned around and went back so he could get a running start. He just managed to clear it. If he’d been running through knee deep snow, he never would have made the jump._

_ Jitsui almost didn’t make the jump. The toe of his boot hit the roof, but wasn’t far enough onto it for him to put any weight on it. Arms reaching forward, he started to fall back. Odagiri darted in before he could, gripped Jitsui’s wrist, and pulled him forward. Jitsui gave a quick nod of thanks once his feet were both under him, on the roof. Then they were running again. One more small leap to another roof, then Odagiri checked to make sure that they had no pursuit, either on the ground or behind them. Then they dropped down to the ground and went back on the streets._

_ “Where do we go?” Jitsui asked him. There was a desperate note in his voice as he tried to fight back his shivers._

_ “We don’t have many options,” Odagiri admitted. They wouldn’t make it back to the theatre without one or both of them getting frostbite. Trying to hide out in a restaurant or a tavern wouldn’t work. The military would probably be doing sweeps of those within the hour. There was a brothel nearby, and Odagiri briefly considered it, but decided against it. There was no guarantee that the military wouldn’t sweep that establishment too. And they most certainly would be going through all the motels in the area. Anyone who had checked in today would face intense scrutiny. Even Tazaki and Jitsui, even though they’d checked in earlier in the day. There was no way Odagiri would be able to hide in their room. The abandoned buildings hereabouts would be searched too. So what did that leave?_

_ Odagiri was about to say that they needed to get back to the theatre as quickly as they could when he realized they had another option. He actually almost walked right by it. Well, not right by the one they needed, they were still too close to where they’d been spotted. But in the road beside them, right up against the curb, was an abandoned car. One of dozens on this block alone. _

_ “I have an idea . . . but you’re not going to like it.”_

_ Jitsui did not, in fact, like Odagiri’s idea. Odagiri was fairly certain that it would be safe to say that Jitsui hated his idea. But he knew, like Odagiri, that their options were very slim. _

_ They chose a car half a dozen blocks away from where they’d lost their pursuit. Along a road whose sidewalk had enough foot traffic that it wasn’t noticeable when their footsteps disappeared. Without the proper equipment to break into a car, they had to find one that had been left unlocked. Thankfully, going around and locking every door of the car they had to abandon hadn’t been top priority for at least one driver. The first car they tried in fact. All four doors had been left unlocked, Odagiri and Jitsui discovered, after entering the car through the sidewalk side rear door. They quickly corrected that, then set to work breathing on the windows to fog them up. The windows had been dusted with snow from the outside, but the two spies knew better than to take chances. That snow could be easily brushed away, by the wind, or by human hands. The water vapor from their breath obscured the glass and quickly froze, hiding them from anyone outside who might try to look in. And though the military certainly could go around breaking the glass on any car they wanted to, it was very unlikely that they would. At least this far away from where they would have started their search. It would be way too much effort, especially in the growing darkness and cold._

_ “I’m sorry,” said Odagiri when they were finally finished, and he and Jitsui had both climbed back into the back seat. _

_ “Not your fault,” said Jitsui, though he sounded thoroughly miserable. He was shivering uncontrollably. But for some reason had taken off his gloves and was unbuttoning his coat._

_ “Don’t,” Odagiri told him. “Keep your coat buttoned –”_

_ “I know,” Jitsui said through teeth that were clenched together to keep from chattering as he shivered. “I’m just getting this.”_

_ From under his coat, he pulled out a blanket. _

_ Odagiri stared at it. “Why –”_

_ “Because this is the second time I’ve been stranded in a snow storm in as many weeks,” said Jitsui. “Help me.”_

_ Odagiri helped Jitsui unfold the blanket. Then he started to remove one of the two coats that he was wearing. “Put this on,” he told Jitsui, once he got it off._

_ Jitsui looked torn. “It’s yours. And you’ve been cold longer.”_

_ “I’m used to this cold. And we’ll be sharing the blanket. And we’ll be a bit warmer once we’ve been here for a bit.” Once they’d insulated themselves with the blanket and their body heat had a chance to warm up everything beneath the blanket._

_ Jitsui didn’t argue. “Just let me know if you want it back,” was all he said, as he pulled the larger coat on overtop the one he was wearing. Then they huddled together, folding their legs beneath themselves, then tucked the edges of the blanket beneath and behind themselves, to hold in as much warmth as they could._

_ It wasn’t the most comfortable position Odagiri had ever been in. He was pressed up against the door of the car and Jitsui was practically in his lap. But it could have been much worse. Odagiri remembered his time in military prison, back before D-Agency. _

_ “Tomorrow we’ll go back to the theatre,” said Jitsui. “Tazaki will come looking for us there, if he can. But we should get some food beforehand.”_

_ “Agreed.” Odagiri tried not to think about food. The candy bar that Jitsui had given him seemed a very long time ago. Mostly because he had been half starved before that. But he could wait until tomorrow to eat again. It wasn’t like he really had a choice._

_ Jitsui was still shivering violently. Teeth chattering, and every now and then making slight sounds of pain. Odagiri waited several minutes, expecting it to get better, but his shivering didn’t slow. So, a bit hesitantly, Odagiri slid his arms around Jitsui, and when Jitsui didn’t resist, pulled the smaller boy completely into his lap._

_ “So cold,” Jitsui whispered miserably._

_ “Yeah,” agreed Odagiri. “And again . . . sorry.”_

_ “Again . . . not your fault.”_

_ Despite the fact that Jitsui got cold so easily, he still generated just as much body heat as anyone else. Even though Odagiri had never been that comfortable with casual physical contact, it felt nice to hold him and leach off his warmth. Or perhaps share warmth was a better way of putting it. Because judging by the way Jitsui had latched onto Odagiri, he was trying to absorb as much of the warmth Odagiri gave off as he could. Even after less than a minute of holding each other, Odagiri already felt much better. _

_ Gradually, Jitsui’s shivers lessened, little by little, until they finally, mostly, subsided. _

_ “We’re not going to get frostbite in here?” Jitsui asked after a bit._

_ “No. We should be safe in here. No wind chill. And we have enough insulation. I think we’ll be okay.” It wasn’t that much colder than his apartment when he couldn’t get ahold of coal. In fact, sharing body heat like this, they were probably almost as warm as the common soldiers in their barracks tonight. _

_ “And it’s safe to sleep? Assuming we can?” asked Jitsui. “We won’t die of hypothermia if we sleep?”_

_ “No. We’ll be alright.”_

_ “Good.” Jitsui shifted his position slightly. Trying to get warmer. “So what did you do?”_

_ “What?” _

_ “Did you get caught spying? Are they just framing you because you’re not samurai class? Why are you on the run now?”_

_ “You came here for me without knowing?” asked Odagiri._

_ “I didn’t need to know, so Yuuki-san didn’t tell me. I still don’t strictly need to know, but I want to, and you owe me for this,” said Jitsui. _

_ “I documented evidence of the atrocities Japan has been committing and gave it to an American journalist.”_

_ Jitsui pulled away from Odagiri and Odagiri tensed, wondering if he was going to have a fight on his hands. Jitsui stared at him, wide eyes uncertain. “You’re not joking.”_

_ “No. You deserve the truth.”_

_ Jitsui didn’t actually even have to fight him to beat him. All he had to do was leave. Without shared body heat, Odagiri actually might freeze to death. _

_ “Why?” asked Jitsui, remarkably calm. Which might be more dangerous than him being angry. But he didn’t really sound angry. More curious. Maybe slightly annoyed. “You had to know that constituted as treason.”_

_ “Yes.”_

_ “So why?”_

_ “Because I couldn’t be party to that,” admitted Odagiri. “The things they did in Nanjing . . . the things they’re still doing to the women of Korea . . . I wanted someone who could actually put a stop to it to know about it. The US was my best bet.”_

_ “If they were going to join the war over issues of morality, they would have done so by now,” said Jitsui. “They know what the Germans are doing to France and what they’re trying to do to England. Since that hasn’t motivated them, nothing short of directly attacking them is likely to get them involved.”_

_ “There would be people who would care,” insisted Odagiri. “There are already Americans pretending to be Canadians, slipping over the border and going to fight in Europe. And America elects its leaders. If enough people were outraged –”_

_ “They wouldn’t be. They don’t care about Asians murdering or raping other Asians.”_

_ “It was still better than doing nothing!” Odagiri couldn’t hold back his anger. “Maybe it won’t change anything, but even with the risk, it was worth trying. I know you don’t understand –”_

_ “I do understand,” Jitsui cut him off. _

_ “I sincerely doubt that.”_

_ “Is that why you left D-Agency?” asked Jitsui, a sadistic smile creeping over his face. “Because you knew our morality would never line up with yours? How did that work out?”_

_ “I didn’t – that wasn’t – you don’t know –”_

_ “I know what happens in wars,” said Jitsui. “I’ve read about enough of them. Which isn’t the same as standing in the middle of the carnage, but it’s enough to get the gist of it. People on both sides turn into animals. They treat their enemies and noncombatants associated with their enemies as horribly as they can get away with, and often there’s nothing they can’t get away with. They rape. They murder. They mutilate. They torture. They do things to their enemies that they would never even think about doing to people of their own nation because they don’t see their enemies as people. That’s how it’s been in every war that’s ever been, and that’s how it’s going to be in every war that will ever be.”_

_ “So I’m supposed to just do nothing?”_

_ “No, you’re supposed to do what you have to do to live,” said Jitsui._

_ “I have to live with myself, you know. Maybe you don’t care –”_

_ “Don’t,” said Jitsui very coldly, “pretend you know what I care about.”_

_ “Then tell me,” challenged Odagiri. “What do you care about? Or are you just doing this spy thing to survive?”_

_ “Obviously I’m doing it to survive,” said Jitsui. “Every man of D-Agency is. None of us want to be just another gear in Japan’s corrupted war machine, to be ground down until we break then discarded. That’s why I joined D-Agency. Because for young men in our country there are really only two options: military service or fleeing the country. I didn’t flee because I knew that eventually there’s going to be nowhere to run. And because no where is ever going to accept me like my home country. As for what I care about . . . right now, aside from staying alive, I care about keeping my family alive. And I’m not talking about the parents who birthed me just so they could have another field hand, or the siblings who probably haven’t even realized I’m gone.”_

_ He was talking about D-Agency, Odagiri realized with surprise. Jitsui . . . considered D-Agency his family._

_ What . . . when . . . D-Agency had been close before Odagiri left, he guessed. Was growing closer each passing month, but . . . well, they were already more tight knit than the military unit Odagiri had been with. Maybe it wasn’t really surprising that even Jitsui had come to see D-Agency as his family._

_ But what did that make Odagiri, who’d left?_

_ “Do you hate me for leaving?” asked Odagiri before he could even think about that question._

_ Jitsui cocked his head slightly. In his anger he had forgotten how cold he was. Now it was starting to set in again. He hunched in on himself as he considered Odagiri’s question, then answered. “No. I don’t hate you. No one does. I won’t lie. There have been times when I’ve resented you. And I definitely think you were an idiot for leaving. But all things considered, I’d rather you come back home where you belong.”_

_ That hit Odagiri hard. For a moment he couldn’t breathe. D-Agency . . . home . . . “You really think Yuuki-san will let me after what I just did? I betrayed my country.”_

_ “You really think he’s going to care that much?” asked Jitsui. “He’s thrown his hat in for Japan for the same reason the rest of us have. Because it’s the only place we’ll ever really be accepted. So we might as well make sure we win. And . . . well, I can’t tell you everything we’ve been up to, especially not here. Not until we get out of Manchuria and you can’t reveal what I’ve told you if we get captured, but if you knew some of the things we’ve been up to . . .” Jitsui shrugged. “We’ve done plenty to damage idiotic military figures. Some would equate that to treason. We call it practicality. There’s no reason for idiots and uncontrolled sociopaths to be in positions that let them run our country into the ground unchecked. I seriously doubt Yuuki-san will care about you taking action against some of them, whatever your methods.”_

_ Odagiri couldn’t think of anything to say to that. And Jitsui seemed to have nothing more to say on the subject either. He regarded Odagiri for several seconds, and when Odagiri didn’t speak, Jitsui moved back so they were leaning against each other, sharing warmth, and started fixing the blanket. Odagiri stopped him, pulled him onto his lap again, so they were sharing the maximum amount of warmth, then helped him tuck the edges of the blanket around themselves, sealing the warmth in._

_ Jitsui leaned back against Odagiri’s chest and gave a tired sigh. “It’s going to be a long night. I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep.”_

_ “Sorry . . . about this whole mess. And everything else.” Sorry for leaving, was what Odagiri meant, but couldn’t bring himself to say. But Jitsui was sharp enough to understand._

_ “You can make it up to me when we get home,” said Jitsui generously. _

_ Home. Already that word was starting to sound more normal. Odagiri gave a slight laugh, despite knowing Jitsui was serious. But he doubted Jitsui would try to call in any favors that were too bad. _

_ “You can sleep if you want to,” said Jitsui after they lapsed into silence again. “You don’t have to stay awake just because I can’t sleep.”_

_ Odagiri had spent a lot of time sleeping since his flight from his office. And the least he could do was stay awake and keep Jitsui company now._

_ “Thanks. Maybe I will later, but I’m not tired right now. Hey . . .”_

_ “Yes?”_

_ “How is Fukumoto?”_

* * *

Sorry for the long wait. I took some time off after Christmas to visit family, and when I came back work had piled up. And January and February are always busy as it is. 

A few notes about cold weather are in in the comments, so if you're from somewhere tropical, and our boys' concerns about the cold don't always make sense to you, it might help you understand.


	7. Chapter 7

After the power went out, the reality of the storm started setting in. 

Before, it had been more of a welcome inconvenience. Getting snowed in for a few days with everyone sounded like (and was) fun. As long as the power stayed on, things were nice and cozy and comfortable. Less so when the storm took out the electricity.

Jitsui felt it first during the night, when the power went out. Had he been sleeping alone, he would have been miserable, but then, he would have been miserable sleeping alone during any winter night. The others were probably fine with their blankets. And he was fine with Hatano there to keep him warm.

By the time morning came, the dormitory was icy cold, and when Jitsui peeked his head out from under the blankets, he could see his breathe hanging in clouds in the air. It was enough to make him bury himself back under the covers again and just lay there for another hour, with his head resting on Hatano’s chest. Even under the blankets he could hear the wind howling, and knew that if there was one good thing about this morning, it was that he would not be expected to shovel snow. It was pointless when the wind was that strong.

Hatano woke up before Jitsui had been awake too long, but didn’t seem very eager to get out of bed either. Nor did anyone else when they woke up. Finally, Fukumoto got up, got dressed, and went downstairs to start breakfast. Only after he had been up for a suitable amount of time did any other the others start crawling out of bed.

With no power, cooking options were limited. But Fukumoto had prepared for this and made a large pot of rice before bed yesterday. He put some in a smaller pot and used the fire to heat it up for breakfast, and in another pot made miso soup. A third pot was used to heat water for coffee and tea.

They ate breakfast in the lounge that morning, since it was now one of the only warm rooms in the house. Then they settled in for another snowed in day of books, board games, and cards. 

Through the window they could see the snow falling much faster today than yesterday. The wind was much stronger too, to the point where there were times they could barely see out the window, so many snowflakes were spinning around. Sometimes it was hard to tell how much snow was actually falling, and how much was just getting swept back up by the wind. But whichever was the case, all of them were glad to be inside.

Well, all of them except Emma, who wanted to go outside and play in the snow. Amari wouldn’t let her today. The wind made it too cold, and she might get frostbite or an ear infection, was the reason he gave her, and those reasons were valid, but the rest of them all knew that the real reason he wouldn’t let her go out was because he didn’t want to be out in the storm watching her. 

Emma alternated between pleading and pouting for most of the morning, until Tazaki solved the problem by going outside with a large dishpan, filling it with snow, and bringing it inside for Emma to play with. That made Emma just as happy as going outside would have, and kept her occupied for even longer since only her hands got cold while she played with snow inside.

She enlisted others to play with her. Tazaki first, who helped her make tiny snow pigeons. Then Amari who turned the big pile of snow in the middle of the pan into a snow dolphin. All of which were released back outside before they could melt, while they took a break from snow sculpting to have lunch. After having some soup and rice balls, they brought in another pan of snow, and this time Emma recruited Hatano and Jitsui, who helped her make a snow castle. Jitsui would have rather continued reading, curled up in his armchair with Hatano, but he supposed the change of pace wasn’t too bad. 

Kaminaga and Miyoshi disappeared for most of the afternoon, to work with Yuuki in his office. All three of them came down for supper when it started getting dark. Noodle with soy sauce were on the menu that night. Since boiling water and other liquids was the easiest way for them to cook over the fire.

It started getting dark even earlier than usual that evening, thanks to the thick cloud cover high above, that was still literally pouring snow down over the city, and the winds that kept stirring it about, keeping it thick in the air. Jitsui had been looking out windows on and off again today, between reading and other tasks. During the day, especially yesterday, the snow had seemed fluffy, soft, and bright. It had been harder to think of it that way today when the wind was so strong and not as much sunlight got through. But as night fell, and with the power still out, the snow just seemed more and more . . . antagonistic. 

“Wanna sleep down here in the lounge tonight?” Hatano asked, as though he sensed Jitsui’s apprehension about going up to the dorms to sleep. By now the dormitory would be freezing cold. So far away from any source of warmth, it would be about the same temperature that it was outside. Maybe a couple degrees warmer, and without the windchill, but still horribly cold and nowhere near comfortable. Even with Hatano sharing his bed, it would still be bad.

“Yes,” said Jitsui immediately. He didn’t even have to think about it.

“I hope you two weren’t counting on privacy,” said Tazaki, “because I was planning on sleeping down here near the fire too.”

“We probably all should,” said Jitsui. Because while it had flitted through his mind that it would be very, very nice having some alone time with Hatano, in front of the nice warm fire, he wasn’t selfish enough to prioritize that over his fellow spies. He remembered exactly how horrible it had been to be stuck in a snowstorm with no heat source. The dormitory wasn’t nearly that bad, but still, no one would get a good night’s sleep up there now.

“I’ll go get our blankets,” Hatano told Jitsui. “You stay here.”

Jitsui gave him a grateful smile. 

Ten, maybe twenty minutes later, the lounge had been transformed into a makeshift dormitory. Fukumoto, Odagiri, Jitsui, Hatano, Tazaki, and Amari had all spread their bedding out on the floor, arranging it neatly in two rows, so that there was plenty of space to navigate around the other sleepers, in case anyone needed to get up during the night, or when some of them inevitably arose earlier than the others. Amari brought down bedding for Emma, setting her makeshift bed up right beside his. Tazaki brought down Kaminaga’s for him, and Odagiri brought down Sakuma’s, since Kaminaga was still working with Miyoshi and Yuuki, and Sakuma was working (and probably freezing) in his own office. Hopefully he had left a note for Sakuma, so that the lieutenant didn’t think they were trying to bully him by stealing his bedding. Kaminaga, at least, would figure out what was going on as soon as he entered the dorm. Assuming he went directly to bed and didn’t come down to the lounge to see if anyone else was still up and willing to drink or chat. Miyoshi was still sleeping in the infirmary, just on the other side of the wall, so he did not need his bedding brought down. 

“Are you bored of this yet?” asked Hatano, as they piled the blankets over themselves and laid down to sleep.

“This?” Jitsui asked.

“Being snowed in.”

“Nope.” Jitsui definitely was not tired of having down time, with everyone home, even if they only had a few warm rooms to be in. He didn’t mind the break from his physical conditioning in the least, and had no problem at all spending all day reading by the fire. He nestled against Hatano and closed his eyes. “It’s nice to be trapped by snow but be warm for a change.”

* * *

_ It was probably the longest night of Jitsui’s life. He had never been in such cold for so long before. He didn’t even know it was possible to shiver for so long. _

_ Before the first hour was up, he had ended up curling up into as small of a ball as he could, in an effort to conserve warmth, gloved hands tucked under his own arms, his knitted hat unrolled and pulled down over his eyes and nose, and the blanket pulled up to his chin. He was very, very glad now that he had thought to stuff that blanket under his coat before coming. He hadn’t really thought that it would be needed, but the memory of getting stranded during a snowstorm with Hatano was still fresh in his mind. That incident had turned out much better than this one, since Hatano had led them to a cave with a hidden hot spring inside, and they had a couple towels to dry off with, and the cave had been so nice and toasty, the stone floor hard, but heated by the spring. He had thought, at the time, how much nicer it would have been to have just one blanket too. _

_ He really had been so spoiled then._

_ Right now he would have traded the blanket for the hot spring cave in an instant. Taking shelter in this abandoned car was horrible._

_ Odagiri was handling it much better than Jitsui. He was more used to the Manchurian winter, and had been desensitized to the cold after staying in the theatre for however long he’d been hiding out there. He did his best to help Jitsui, wrapping his arms around the smaller man first, then when that didn’t have the desired results, pulling Jitsui onto his lap and tucking him under his chin. _

_ Being so close to someone other than Hatano felt slightly wrong, but this was for survival. And there was nothing intimate about this. _

_ Odagiri did his best to try and keep a quiet conversation going. Jitsui’s mind felt as numbed by the cold as his body was, but having something to talk about did help. Odagiri asked a lot of questions. Mostly things of little consequence. How the other spies were. If Yoru was still around. What meals were like these days. If Fukumoto had tried cooking any new dishes. Questions that Jitsui could answer. There was a lot he couldn’t talk about, but Odagiri knew that and did his best to skirt those topics. Books were brought up, more than once, since Jitsui and Odagiri both liked to read._

_ At times it felt like that long cold night would never end. But when it did, the end came too quickly. Jitsui had completely lost track of time, but Odagiri had been able to gage it better. “It’s about four in the morning now, I think,” he told Jitsui. “It’s earlier than I’d normally try moving since it’s still so cold, but if we wait until the sun’s up . . .”_

_ “We’ll get caught.” Jitsui swallowed and began mentally bracing himself to face even greater cold. He knew that even though he couldn’t really feel it now, they had managed to generate some warmth in the car, as warm bodies in a small space will do. So it was probably a few degrees warmer inside the car than out. More if you factored in windchill. But as soon as they left the safety of the car, they would definitely feel that difference._

_ “I know somewhere else we can hold up for awhile. It’s about two thirds of the way back to the theatre. A restaurant that’s only open in the evening and night. No one should be there until early afternoon,” said Odagiri. “We can warm up there for a few hours, then get back to the theatre. Then . . .”_

_ “Then we can warm up there some more,” said Jitsui, “and see if Tazaki comes before I thaw out enough to try going back to the motel.” _

_ Tazaki probably would arrive before Jitsui was in good enough shape and had enough motivation to try making his way back across the city yet again. Not that Jitsui was likely to be motivated enough or feel in good enough shape to want to cross the city again any time this week. Then again, the motel had been less cold than most places Jitsui had been so far in this damn frozen country . . ._

_ He fixed his hat so that it wasn’t covering his eyes anymore, and folded the blanket back up, with much regret. The difference in temperature between the air underneath the blanket and the air above it was jarring. But no comparison to the difference in temperature of the air inside the car to the air outside the car. The moment it hit Jitsui he gave an audible gasp. With the sun absent for so long, the temperature had plummeted unbelievably low. How could anyone survive here? Much less make a civilization here? And why in hell did Japan want to conquer this frozen hell? Jitsui would never understand._

_ They hurried. They had to. Traveling across the city in this cold was flirting with frostbite. By the time Odagiri spoke up to let him know they were halfway to the waypoint, Jitsui’s toes and fingers were prickling with pain and his nose and ears were numb. By the time they finally made it there, Jitsui was stumbling and needed to cling to Odagiri to stay upright. The pain in his feet and hands was almost unbearable, and his eyes stung horribly with tears that he was afraid were freezing to his face as they spilled out. He wasn’t sure how they got inside the restaurant. Maybe Odagiri picked the lock, or maybe he knew where a spare key was. Jitsui could barely see anything. He wouldn’t have known they’d even entered the building except suddenly, blessed warm air was crashing over him. _

_ He wanted to cry in relief, but he knew better than to make any unnecessary sounds before he knew it was safe to. And since he couldn’t see, and Odagiri gave no signal that it was safe, he bit his lip and stayed quiet, only moving forward when Odagiri tugged on his arm. He tried to lift his other arm, to brush away his tears and clear his eyes, but his arm didn’t want to follow his instructions. His footsteps were making too much noise against the floorboards. He knew it, but couldn’t help it. But Odagiri had to know too. Maybe he was more confident that the place was abandoned than Jitsui was. Though he shouldn’t have been. Not until they did a sweep. Yuuki-san would have to drill that complacency out of him once Jitsui got him back to D-Agency. Not that Jitsui could do much to further his mission right now. He mentally grimaced. He’d been sent in to extract Odagiri, but now he was the one who was nearly helpless and depending on Odagiri. _

_ “This way,” Odagiri whispered, leading him further inside. “How are you feeling?”_

_ Jitsui made a very soft disgruntled noise in the back of his throat. They shouldn’t be having a conversation right now._

_ “Your fingers and your toes . . . can you feel them okay?”_

_ “We shouldn’t be talking,” hissed Jitsui._

_ “It’s alright. There’s no one here.”_

_ “We don’t know that.”_

_ “The building is completely dark.”_

_ Which meant nothing. The owner could be in the office, staying late to count the money in the safe. An employee could be sleeping behind the bar. _

_ “At the very least, no one is here in the kitchen. Even if someone else is here, as long as we whisper, they won’t know we’re here. Ah, here we are. Here, sit down. Right here, by the stove.”_

_ Jitsui obeyed. What else could he do? And the spot Odagiri had taken him to was the warmest place he’d been yet this horrible night. He didn’t so much sit as collapse onto the floor, right in front of a large metal oven with a range on top. _

_ “This place caters to high ranking military and wealthy local officials. The owners take their money, then turn around and use it to feed the hungry. The staff makes a batch of bread dough every afternoon, when they get here. By the time they close, it’s ready to go in the oven. By the time they’ve swept up and cleaned everything, it’s done baking. They’ll drop it off tomorrow at a local community center. That’s why these ovens are still a little warm.”_

_ They felt very warm to Jitsui, but since he was mostly frozen, his ability to gauge temperatures was probably off. “You investigated them.”_

_ “Yes,” admitted Odagiri._

_ Which explained why he knew about this place. And why Odagiri had been looking into them. Philanthropists with extra money were always worth keeping a close eye on in times of war. _

_ “How are your hands and feet?”_

_ “Pins and needles.” In the few minutes since he’d come inside, he’d started to get feeling back in his extremities. Those feelings were mainly sharp prickles of pain, but it was better than not feeling anything._

_ “You’re probably a little frostbitten,” said Odagiri regretfully. “But as long as you’re feeling pain, you’ll be okay.”_

_ “What about you?”_

_ “Maybe a tinge frostbitten as well. But nothing that won’t heal on its own.”_

_ “When we go back out in the cold to get back to the theatre . . . is that going to compound the damage done?” asked Jitsui apprehensively._

_ “Possibly. But the distance between us and the theatre now is much less than the distance we had to cover to get here from the car. I think we should be okay.”_

_ I miss Hatano, thought Jitsui miserably. He rubbed his hands together, despite the tingling pain. He needed to get them as warm as possible, as fast as possible._

_ Odagiri sat stiffly down beside him and did the same. “We can’t risk a light . . . but I wish we could. To make sure the damage isn’t . . . Isn’t horrible.”_

_ “How long can we stay here?”_

_ “An hour or two. We need to try to be in the theatre before dawn.”_

_ Yes. They couldn’t afford to risk Odagiri being seen by anyone. Or anyone seeing them sneak back into the theatre. _

_ Jitsui sighed and pulled the blanket out from under his coat again, with shaking, tingling hands. He let gravity unfold it, then tossed one side toward Odagiri. They might as well do everything they could to warm up faster now. Odagiri was not Hatano, but he was still a warm body to share heat with. Odagiri quickly obliged. They didn’t sit as close together as they had in the car. It wasn’t necessary here, by the stove. So the blanket wasn’t fully wrapped around them. It wasn’t that large. But sitting shoulder to shoulder, with the blanket pulled around their backs, they could almost make it meet in the front, and it was warm enough. Warmer than Jitsui had been since he left his cabin on the ship. Warm enough that he could probably fall asleep if he let himself. But that wasn’t a good idea now, he knew. Sleep meant slower circulation. That was the last thing he needed right now. _

_ Well, maybe he would be able to get warm enough to sleep at the theatre, if he curled up under the blanket with Odagiri. After the sun had come up and started warming this damn city._

_ At least this night was almost over. The morning would be here soon, and Tazaki with it. That was a great comfort. He was among the best of them at problem solving. And he knew this city. Tazaki would have a plan._

* * *

Next chapter is a Tazaki Chapter!


	8. Chapter 8

_ Tazaki realized that they had a problem even before he realized Jitsui wasn’t coming back that night. Military men barged into the motel hell bent on finding the cowardly runaway traitor, one Tobisaki Hiroyuki._

_ As someone who’d only just checked in that day, Tazaki was treated with extra suspicion. The military police searched his luggage thoroughly (but not thoroughly enough) and held up their poorly sketched wanted poster and compared him to it meticulously, before they finally decided he was not Odagiri, and wasn’t hiding Odagiri in his closet, or smuggling anything into the country to aid Odagiri with. _

_ Once they left, Tazaki got to work. He was fairly certain just from that, that Jitsui wouldn’t be coming back tonight. He and Odagiri would know better. It was fully dark outside now anyway. Their mobility would be greatly limited by the cold. If he knew them, they had found someplace to hide for the night already. And tomorrow they would, if at all possible, meet Tazaki at the threatre, since that was where Tazaki had sent Jitsui, and where they knew he would most likely come looking for them._

_ He managed to learn a little more at the motel’s cheap restaurant/bar combination, where he went down to drink, as soon as the MPs moved on to bother the next boarder. There, he learned a little more about what had happened from other disgruntled guests, and from snatches of conversations by off duty soldiers. Apparently Odagiri had been spotted nearby, recognized by a former acquaintance who was on patrol, and punched said acquaintance in the face to make his escape. There were mentions of an accomplice, but no one offered up any details about him, so Tazaki thought it was fairly safe that no one had gotten too good a look at Jitsui. Probably because he’d had his scarf wrapped around his face up to his eyeballs and his hat pulled down as far as he could without it covering his eyes. But make no mistake, that didn’t mean Jitsui was in the clear. His room had been ransacked by the military police, Tazaki had noticed as he’d walked by. Nothing of suspect had been found or they would have gone to the front desk and demanded all the details they had on Jitsui, and found out that Tazaki had checked in with him. Jitsui would need an alibi for when he came back. If he came back. It would be better if he did. Losing all of his luggage in a place like this would be a massive inconvenience. But most likely it wouldn’t come to that. Since Jitsui’s face hadn’t been seen, there wasn’t any reason to think he couldn’t come back yet, and luckily, Tazaki had a pretty good alibi for him. Not an alibi that Jitsui would really like, but he’d accept it as necessary. _

_ After a bowl of flavorless but hot gruel, and a glass of cheap whiskey that Tazaki would rather not have ordered, but felt like he needed tom, to blend in, Tazaki went back to his room. Since the hallway was abandoned, he closed the door to Jitsui’s room, which had been left ajar. His luggage was still there, with everything strewn about. Some opportunistic bastard might have snuck in and grabbed an article or two, but most of the stuff was clearly still laying on the floor. _

_ Tazaki then went to his own room, put an extra pair of socks on over the ones he was already wearing, put on his gloves, drank a glass of water to start re-hydrating, then crawled into bed with his coat still on. The motel was uncomfortably chilling . . . but not horrible. Wherever Jitsui and Odagiri were hunkering down probably was horrible. It made Tazaki feel incredibly guilty. Like he should be there with them. _

_ He knew his thoughts weren’t rational. That even if he was with them, there wasn’t much he could do for them. But it still made it hard for Tazaki to sleep. _

_ If staying awake would have done Odagiri and Jitsui any good, Tazaki would have waited up with no hesitation. But he was stuck at the motel for the night. Trying to go out and search for them in Manchuria, during the winter, at night, would be suicide. _

_ Maybe Odagiri knew someplace safe and warm they could go, he tried to tell himself, but he couldn’t really make himself believe it. More likely than not, Odagiri and Jitsui had holed up somewhere that constituted as the bear minimum they needed for shelter from the cold, and were huddling together to be just a little warmer. While Tazaki lay in bed, under several blankets and a sheet, with his double layer of socks on. _

_ The night passed slowly and he slept fitfully. Long before morning came, he was already up and ready to head out, now with a triple layer of socks, and another pair stuffed into his pocket, along with some fried bread from the motel restaurant, an alcohol flask filled with water, and a blanket stuffed under his coat. If he was stopped and searched by military police, it could lead to a few awkward questions, but Tazaki was sure he could have bluffed his way through. Thankfully, the MPs didn’t seem too active this morning. The streets were mostly deserted as Tazaki hurried to the theatre. _

_ He found a way to enter on the roof, quickly enough. And he got confirmation that Jitsui and Odagiri had entered this way as well. Or at least Jitsui was. Tazaki recognized the tread of his boot prints in the snow on the roof. The other boots were military standard, and were Odagiri’s size, and there was really no one other than Odagiri that Jitsui would have come here with, so it was a pretty safe bet those footprints were his. He entered the building after picking the lock and found himself in the theatre’s overhead staging area. Then, once the door was shut behind him, Tazaki tapped his knuckles against the wall. Two fast taps, two steady taps, then two more fast taps. His personal signal._

_ He got a return signal back immediately. Four steady taps, a pause, then two fast ones. Jitsui’s identifying signal. Then a second signal, indicating that as far as Jitsui knew, they were safe. Two fast taps, a pause, then two more fast taps. Tazaki returned that signal then called to his friends softly. “Jitsui? Odagiri?”_

_ “Down here,” called Odagiri. “Come down if you can.”_

_ So Tazaki made his way down from the overhead staging area, and found his friends had taken refuge beneath the stage, in the crawlspace underneath a trap door. A good choice of places. Probably the best place in the theatre, actually. With no heat on in the building, the theatre was frigid. Almost as cold as the air outside, but without the snow and windchill. The crawlspace was essentially a wooden box, and Odagiri had pulled down the stage curtain and used that to line it. No doubt that had helped insulate it, and Odagiri didn’t look too terribly bad, but Jitsui looked well and truly miserable. _

_ “Are you both okay?’ asked Tazaki, feeling a stab of concern when Jitsui didn’t sit up to greet him, or even uncurl from the ball he was in._

_ “Mostly,” said Odagiri. “Jitsui got a little frostbitten.”_

_ “Odagiri got a little shot,” Jitsui retorted._

_ “How bad?” asked Tazaki. The question was for both of them._

_ “He should recover with no ill effects, as long as he doesn’t spend too much more time outside for awhile,” said Odagiri. “And I’m mostly better now. No infection or muscle damage. Not too much blood loss.”_

_ That reminded Tazaki. He pulled his flask out and handed it to Odagiri. “Drink. Both of you. And eat. I brought you some bread.”_

_ The fried bread had been piping hot when he’d gotten it. Now it was stone cold, to the surprise of absolutely no one. Odagiri and Jitsui didn’t seem to mind. They set to devouring it immediately. As they ate, Tazaki quickly filled them in on what had happened at the motel. Then they gave him a quick rundown of how their night had been, and Odagiri, unprompted, confessed to Tazaki why he was in this predicament to begin with._

_ Tazaki . . . wasn’t surprised. He couldn’t say he was pleased with what had happened, but he couldn’t find fault with it either. Odagiri had done what he thought was right. Done what he thought would make things right. It was admirable in a naïve sort of way. But there was so much wrong with the world, and there were no easy fixes. _

_ “Well,” he said, once the explanations were finished, “this isn’t nearly as bad as it could be.”_

_ “What should we do now, Tazaki?” asked Jitsui. He looked so very young right then. And half frozen. His skin was paler than usual and Tazaki had noticed a slight bluish tint at the tip of his nose. His ears, hidden beneath his hat, and his fingers and toes were probably tinged blue as well, and his lips had a definite bluish-purple hue to them. It was very clear that he was looking to Tazaki for help, and hoping that Tazaki would say that everything was going to be alright, and that he had a plan to deal with this all. Tazaki was very happy that he was able to oblige. It made him feel very big-brother-like._

_ “We start by moving you two to my safehouse. You’ll love it. It’s much warmer than here. We’ll fix up your alibi so you can come back to the motel, Jitsui, and resume your cover. Then tonight, we’ll kill Odagiri.”_

_ “What?” Jitsui looked taken aback. Odagiri looked less alarmed but still a bit apprehensive._

_ “Not for real,” Tazaki quickly clarified. “This means I’m going to have to hit up some morgues and find a corpse with the right body type. Tell me you’ve got your dog tags, Odagiri?”_

_ Odagiri reached into his suit’s breast pocket to pull them out, then handed them over. Tazaki pocketed them. _

_ “I’ll take care of staging the corpse while you two lay low.”_

_ “There are people who know my face here,” protested Odagiri. “They’ll recognize that it’s not me.”_

_ “Not when I’m through with it,” said Tazaki. “I plan to pummel the corpse’s face until it looks like ground meat, strangle it with your dog tags, strip it naked, and leave it tied up in an alley with a sign around its neck saying ‘Traitor.’ If I get the chance, I’ll even throw a bucket of water over its head. Or at least a flask of water. Add some ice to complicate things. When they find it, they won’t look too deep into it. They’ll just be glad to close the case and stop doing extra patrols in the middle of winter. Then I’ll start making arrangements to get us out of this damn frozen country.”_

_ “You said I needed an alibi?” asked Jitsui._

_ “Oh yes. I told you your room was tossed while you were gone. It’s not unlikely that the MPs might come back tonight, and if they do, you’re going to need an excuse for why you rented a room then didn’t stay the night in it,” said Tazaki. “The obvious excuse is the best one.”_

_ Jitsui made a face. “Can’t I just grab my luggage and stay in the safehouse with Odagiri?”_

_ “No. I don’t want to get stuck explaining your absence if the front desk tells them you and I came here together. I’ll be staging the corpse at night. I’ll need to be able to move uninhibited. I can’t afford to be roughed up or held up.”_

_ “What excuse are you using?” asked Odagiri, and Tazaki mentally cringed at the innocence of the question. He really had been away from D-Agency for too long._

_ “Young, hotblooded Jitsui spent last night in a brothel,” Tazaki told him. “And of course he has to sell the lie. Think you can help him out with that?”_

_ Tazaki saw the moment that it dawned on Odagiri what was being asked of him. An interesting expression crossed his face. _

_ Jitsui did not look happy, but began unwrapping his scarf, baring the perfect porcelain skin of his neck. “Let’s just get this over with.”_

_ “Yes,” Tazaki agreed. “It has to be done now. We need those hickeys to look at least half a day old before you have to tell the MPs they’re from last night.”_

* * *

Tazaki woke earlier than the other spies. It was still dark outside, not that you could really tell with the blackout curtains in place, but the lounge still had a little bit of warm glow from the dying fire. Tazaki smothered a yawn behind one hand then, as quietly as he could, crawled out of his bedding and went to tend it. 

It was kind of neat, seeing everyone down here in the lounge, asleep. It reminded him of when he was a child and had friends over to stay the night. Or his time in London, at university, in his pre- D-Agency days. Studying in a friend’s dorm until exhaustion set in, then crashing on the floor. It was a nice change of pace from the chilly dormitory. 

Even Miyoshi was here. Tazaki had head last night when Kaminaga came down for bed, but hadn’t known Miyoshi had come too. Since Miyoshi had been sleeping in the infirmary, on the other side of the wall, where he had a nice warm bed, no one had bothered to bring down his bedding from the dormitory. So Miyoshi had shared with Kaminaga, and they looked quite cute together, even though they didn’t cling to each other in sleep like Hatano and Jitsui always did. They were still very close, but only just nestled together, Miyoshi’s head tilted slightly to rest against Kaminaga’s shoulder, and Kaminaga’s face turned just so toward Miyoshi, as though even in sleep, he felt the need to demonstrate a picture perfect angle. Tazaki briefly considered going for a camera, but quickly decided not to. That would only wake everyone up, and it wouldn’t be able to top the picture Kaminaga took, and developed in secret last year, of Hatano sleeping with his head on Yuuki-san’s shoulder, nestled against him so peacefully, like Yuuki-san really was his loving grandfather.

With another smothered yawn, Tazaki began to make his way out of the lounge, and as he did, noticed that Kaminaga and Miyoshi weren’t the only ones who’d doubled up last night. Aside from Hatano and Jitsui who cuddled together every night, Fukumoto and Odagiri had also opted to bunk together to share warmth. They had pulled their bedding together and were both asleep at the inner edge of their own futon, but were back to back, with one extra blanket thrown over top of both of them. 

With slight dismay, Tazaki realized that aside from Sakuma, he was the only one who hadn’t had a bedmate last night. Even Emma had crawled in with Amari. It made Tazaki a little bit jealous.

He wondered how it would go over if he proposed sharing sleeping space with Sakuma tonight. Probably not too well. The lounge, with its fire going, and ten warm bodies total was nice and toasty, and not cold enough for the lieutenant to be able to justify the need to share a bed with another man in his repressed little mind. Besides, if he actually did accept, Miyoshi would throw a fit. So maybe he’d just crawl in with Kaminaga and Miyoshi uninvited. That would probably go better.

Plans for later. But for now, Tazaki wanted to start his day. He made his way to the front of the building, and peeked out a window at the street outside. The sight was about what he’d expected. The wind had died down, and was no longer spinning every stray bit of snow back up into the air, but before it died down it had piled the snow into some annoyingly deep drifts. The street was full of snow, unplowed, as expected. And it was still snowing a bit. Just lightly, right now, but that could change over the course of the day. Tazaki would have to listen

to the radio later, and see what the weather patterns around the greater Tokyo area were like. But right now everyone else was still asleep, and there was something more pressing that needed to be done.

Dawn was breaking, and even if the sun didn’t fully come out today, its warmth was still enough to start lightly melting the top layer of snow on those drifts. The snow underneath that top layer would refreeze, turning it into ice. Trying to shovel through that and all the snow beneath it would be a huge pain. 

Tazaki knew that Yuuki had told Jitsui and Odagiri to do all the snow shoveling around D-Agency this storm . . . and he knew why Yuuki had given them that task. By D-Agency standards, they were out of shape. But still, asking them to shovel everything right after a blizzard seemed a little much to Tazaki. So, he was willing to risk a little punishment if he got caught helping out. Whatever his punishment, he knew he’d still feel worse if he didn’t give Jitsui and Odagiri a hand. So he grabbed his training coat, his scarf, a hat, and his gloves, and found a snow shovel, then headed outside.

The exercise felt good after a couple days of doing pretty much nothing. If they were stuck at D-Agency for longer, Tazaki decided it might be a good idea to get some light exercise in. Join Hatano in his stretching, and his sit up and pushup regiment, or do some light weight lifting. Actually, right now, going for a jog sounded like exactly what he wanted . . . but probably only because he knew that he couldn’t. It would be less jogging and more wading through snow drifts that came up past his waist in places. Snow removal from the streets and sidewalks hadn’t even been attempted yet. Tazaki looked around when he went out the front door, but no one from the neighboring buildings was working to clear their portion of the sidewalk. That wasn’t really surprising though, since most of those buildings weren’t residential ones.

Progress in snow shoveling was slow. There was just so damn much of it. It was clear from the start that completely clearing the sidewalk in front of D-Agency was not going to happen. The best anyone could ask for was a path just wide enough for two people to pass each other if they were walking in opposite directions, and even that was going to take forever to dig out. Thankfully for Tazaki, he was young and strong, and well rested. And he’d faced much worse cold than this. He worked as fast as he could, and by the time the first hour was up, he’d cleared a path from D-Agency’s front door, all the way to one end of the building and a few feet extra. He had just gone back to the door and started shoveling in the opposite direction when Jitsui and Odagiri came out.

“You’re up early,” Tazaki told them, smiling sheepishly. He’d expected them to sleep until midmorning, at least.

“You’re going to get in trouble,” Jitsui told him. 

“I needed the exercise,” said Tazaki, but handed over the shovel when Odagiri held out his hand for it.

“Fukumoto’s boiling eggs,” Odagiri told him, a smile of thanks in his eyes. “And he just made coffee. You should get some breakfast and warm up.”

“I think I will.”

It still rankled a little bit. Letting Odagiri and Jitsui suffer together without him there to share in it. But Tazaki had done what he could to help them out. They’d be alright for the rest of it. 


	9. Chapter 9

There was so much work to be done. For Miyoshi, at least. The others, with the exception of Kaminaga, all got to take it easy and enjoy some downtime. But Miyoshi and Kaminaga, as the top candidates to succeed Yuuki as D-Agency’s leader, didn’t have the luxury of downtime. And Miyoshi had it even harder than Kaminaga now. Because Kaminaga had been in residence at D-Agency for well over a year now, only leaving for brief stints on the occasional mission. Otherwise, Yuuki-san had kept him close and well informed about, well, everything. So now Miyoshi was playing catch up. 

For the first month, he hadn’t been given much to do. He had been healing from that puncture wound in his chest and couldn’t even lift his hands above his rib cage for the first week. Then there had been illness in the house, and Miyoshi had been quarantined, since if he’d caught it, it probably would have killed him in his condition. It had spread from Yuuki, to Emma, to Sakuma, and then finally to Hatano, who’d run himself ragged taking care of everyone. By a fortunate coincidence, Fukumoto had arrived back home the same day Hatano had gotten sick. He’d taken over caring for Miyoshi then, and a recovered Yuuki had taken Hatano’s care upon himself. Which meant that he couldn’t see Miyoshi without risking spreading the illness to him, even though Yuuki himself was now well again, and had become immune to it. 

Finally, once Hatano recovered, and D-Agency had been scrubbed top to bottom with sanitizing solution, Yuuki had finally started giving Miyoshi some reports to read, to bring him up to speed on what D-Agency had been up to. Reading was actually what Miyoshi was still doing the most of. There was so much to take in. So many things to learn and memorize, or at least make mental notes of. Like lists of dissidents and nationalists, graphs showing fluctuating supplies both in Japan and abroad, and codes, so many codes that had been cracked, or needed to be cracked, or might not even be codes at all, but had been suspicious enough to catch D-Agency’s notice, and so they were treating them as codes that needed to be cracked. And that was to say nothing of the mountains of newspapers Miyoshi needed to read. D-Agency kept all of them, and now Miyoshi needed to read all of them. He needed to be as aware of everything that had happened while he’d been gone as possible. Keeping up with all of Japan’s affairs had been impossible while he’d been in Germany. Trying to catch up now felt impossible at times . . . but it wasn’t all bad.

He and Kaminaga had joined Yuuki-san in his office, where they had their own fire crackling nicely. Yuuki-san sat behind his desk. Kaminaga and Miyoshi had pulled chairs over to the fire, though Kaminaga often abandoned his and spread his work out on the floor. They worked mostly in silence, only speaking when necessary, such as when one of them had a question, or when Yuuki came across something else that he needed to hand off to one of them. It wasn’t a bad way to spend a snowy day.

Sometimes they took breaks for meals. Just as often, they worked while they ate. When it grew late, on that first full day without electricity, after the blackout curtains had been drawn, and they’d worked several hours by candle and fire light, Yuuki suddenly straightened his papers and ordered them to stop for the night. Miyoshi knew why, and was grateful. After a full day of working under dim sunlight, their eyes were all strained by now. 

“We start early tomorrow,” said Yuuki as he put out the lantern on his desk. “I want you to have caught up on newspapers by next week, Miyoshi.”

“Yes, Yuuki-san,” Miyoshi agreed as he stood and stretched slightly, his muscles protesting after spending so long seated in his chair. 

Kaminaga moved his own papers into several neat piles, safely away from the fire, before standing as well. “Still no power,” he remarked as he held the door open for Miyoshi. “And it’s going to be a cold night. I envy you, nice and warm in the infirmary. Heck, maybe I’ll join you and skip the freezing dorms tonight.”

“I don’t mind,” Miyoshi said as the door closed behind him. Technically, it was against their protocols for someone who wasn’t ill to spend more time than necessary in the infirmary, but with Miyoshi living there now, and since he was recovering so well, the rule had been relaxed a bit. 

. . . And Miyoshi was well aware that Kaminaga didn’t actually want to spend the night in the infirmary for his own benefit. He appreciated it. 

“Let me just swing by the dorm to get my sleep clothes,” Kaminaga said. So they took a detour to the dorm, where they found that all of the bedding had been removed.

“It looks like everyone must be camping out in the lounge,” Miyoshi said, seeing all the blanketless beds.

“Why don’t you join us in the lounge then?” suggested Kaminaga. “It should be even warmer than the infirmary.”

“Hm. Why not?” Miyoshi agreed. So they made their way downstairs, as planned, only going to the lounge on the other side of the wall from the infirmary instead of the infirmary itself. Miyoshi did swing by the infirmary to change into his own sleep clothes. Once he was finished, he headed back to the lounge, where all the others were asleep, and Kaminaga was waiting for him. 

The others had brought down Kaminaga’s bedding for him, but none for Miyoshi, assuming Miyoshi would sleep in the infirmary. So Miyoshi and Kaminaga did the natural thing and doubled up. Kaminaga had already crawled under his covers, but sat up when Miyoshi entered, and held up one side of the blankets, a silent invitation, which Miyoshi accepted. He could have just as easily crashed on one of the sofas, but sharing with Kaminaga was much more appealing. 

It was nice and warm. His friend’s presence was comforting, and the glow of the fire made Miyoshi feel safe. The train wreck and his grand role of masquerading as a corpse felt very far away from here.

It wasn’t a permanent solution to Miyoshi’s problem. Miyoshi wasn’t naïve enough to believe it was, or that he could always count on Kaminaga or any of the others to be there to chase his nightmares away. There definitely wouldn’t always be a nice warm light keeping the darkness at bay. But for now, he would take the temporary fix. It would buy him time to figure out how to make it go away for good.

* * *

_ Tazaki hadn’t been kidding when he said Jitsui and Odagiri would love his safehouse. It was perfect. So perfect, Jitsui was almost a little mad they hadn’t come here right off the bat. Though he knew why they hadn’t. They’d needed to get the lay of the land after their arrival, make sure no one was showing undue interest in them, and that they didn’t lead anyone here. So they did exactly what their cover stories would do, if their covers were real people, here for an actual job, in the meantime, so that they could allay any suspicions, at least until they could find a chance to slip away, unnoticed._

_ But still, the safe house was so nice. It was perfect. _

_ A small basement apartment usually wouldn’t be this desirable, but it was right next to the apartment complex’s boiler room. So it was warm. So, so warm. And it was well hidden. It was clear that was by careful design. Jitsui wasn’t sure how it had happened. Perhaps the apartment had always been concealed, since the building was first constructed. Or maybe when it changed ownership, D-Agency had stepped in and made it disappear. But however it had happened, the apartment’s main entrance was perfectly concealed, its door covered with stones and mortar that fit in place perfectly amongst the rest of the wall when it was closed. Even the keyhole was impossible to identify as a keyhole. It looked like nothing more than a dent in a mottled rock, and the key had to be inserted at a very steep angle. But once the key was fitted properly in place, the door swung open soundlessly, on well oiled hinges, and Tazaki had quickly ushered the other spies inside. _

_ The apartment inside was well lit, by several bright bulbs, and was very spartan. It was a one room apartment with an attached bathroom. A narrow bed was pressed against the wall that the apartment shared with the boiler room. Underneath the bed, Jitsui noticed several suitcases had been stored. His curiosity reared its head, despite how cold he currently was, or maybe in testament to how warm the apartment was, that he was thawing out so quickly. He would have to snoop through them at some point soon. _

_ A closed wardrobe was beside the bed. Jitsui had a pretty good idea of what it held. Military uniforms, spare winter outerware, and a few changes of clothes in several sizes. Maybe an extra blanket or two, but that might actually not be necessary, the apartment was so well heated. _

_ The kitchen was tiny, but well stocked. Tinned food and dried food, nonperishable staples, jarred sauces, and other staples like oil and vinegar were on display on open shelves. There was no oven or cooking range, but there was a portable gas stove on the counter, and plenty of cans of fuel stacked near it. There were more cabinets, under the counter, that Jitsui knew just weren’t for show. Some probably held pots and pans for cooking. Others, probably had bins of rice and beans. All in all, Jitsui was confident that if they had to, the three of them could hold out here for at least a month. Probably several. Not that he wanted to. He wanted to get out of this damned frozen country as quickly as possible. Back home to D-Agency, where Hatano was waiting for him. _

_ “Best safehouse ever,” said Odagiri, breaking the silence as he took off his shoes. Jitsui removed his as well. This safehouse had that kind of feel to it. Like it was a homey sort of place, where one took off their shoes, to keep the floors cleaner. Then Jitsui made a beeline to the bed. He shed his coat and let it drop on the floor before flopping down onto the bed and curling into a ball. _

_ “Wake me up when we’re ready to go home,” he murmured, burying his face into a blanket._

_ “You can’t sleep yet. Sit up,” ordered Tazaki._

_ Jitsui did so very reluctantly, dragging the blanket up with him, and wrapping it around his shoulders. _

_ Tazaki pulled two cans of tea off one of the shelves. He handed one to Odagiri, then tossed the other to Jitsui. Jitsui had to lunge forward to catch it. _

_ “Start rehydrating. Both of you drink at least two cups of water after you finish your tea. Then you can fix yourselves some coffee if you want. Jitsui, you’ll probably need the boost before you head back to the motel. I want you to start heading that way before lunch if you can manage it. Get a meal and drink at the motel bar and make sure you’re seen there.”_

_ “Right,” said Jitsui. He opened his can of tea and took a deep drink. Room temperature tea had never tasted this good before. _

_ “We better do something for your skin too. Don’t want it looking too raw or chafed . . .” Jitsui watched with mild interest as Tazaki pulled a small metal bin out from under the counter and started going through it, until he found a tin of salve. “Keep drinking,” he told Jitsui. “We need you back in traveling shape in only a few hours.”_

_ So Jitsui just sat there, like a lazy lump, occasionally taking sips of his canned tea as Tazaki spread a thin layer of the salve over his face, and rubbed it in, taking care to avoid his eyes. It burned when it first made contact with his skin, but the burning soon subsided, leaving a tingling sensation behind. He handed it off to Odagiri when he was finished applying it to Jitsui, then went to the sink and filled a mug with water for himself from the tap. _

_ “We’ll check out of the motel in a few days,” Tazaki said, “and join Odagiri here. Assume new identities and get back to Japan as quickly as possible. We’ll shoot for three days, to tie up loose ends, and make sure we’ve avoided suspicion. But if it takes us longer, don’t fret, Odagiri. I don’t intend to leave you here on your own, but if the worst happens, and we have to, you’ll be fine here on your own until spring. If you ration carefully, you can probably make it nearly to summer.”_

_ “I appreciate the sentiment . . . but that prospect seems very bleak,” said Odagiri dryly._

_ “Yes. So we’ll do all we can to avoid it.” Tazaki crossed the room to the wardrobe and hung his coat on one of the hooks on the wardrobe’s door. Those hooks, Jitsui thought, look like they had been attached after the wardrobe had been bought. They didn’t quite match the style of the furniture, and most wardrobes didn’t have hooks on the outsides of the doors anyway. This one had hooks on the outer doors and both sides though, Jitsui saw. Like everything else here, it was designed to maximize space. It would come in handy now that there would be three of them living in this one room soon. Especially since, he now saw, the wardrobe was already pretty full. Tazaki selected a military uniform from it, and began to strip down so he could change into it. So that was how he planned to get into the morgues. He probably already had a story in mind that would let him gain access and be both above suspicion and easily forgettable. Tazaki really seemed to have everything well put together. Jitsui was realizing that more and more, the longer he spent time in Manchuria. Yuuki-san had warned them all many times in training that things in other countries had a tendency to go wrong, but sometime during his nice quiet, easy undercover role as a houseboy, Jitsui had forgotten those lessons. After this, he had much more respect for the spies who’d done the majority of their work abroad. How many times had they danced back from the brink of disaster? He’d probably never know._

_ “But you’ll see me again later this afternoon, unless something goes wrong,” said Tazaki. “I’ll need to drop this uniform off back here and change back into my reporter clothes before I go back to the motel. If you don’t see me though, don’t panic. And don’t come looking for me. That goes for both of you. If I don’t come back to the motel, Jitsui, use your best judgment to form an exit strategy and make your way back here.”_

_ “I understand,” Jitsui agreed._

_ “I have other places I can lay low for days or weeks if need be,” said Tazaki. “And if for some reason you need to flee this safehouse when I’m not here, there are two exits. That window,” he pointed at a shuttered window on the far side of the room, “is the main one. It leads up a drain shaft along the alley side of the building, and is hidden by a hedge. The other is that vent shaft on the ceiling.” He pointed. “It’ll be a tight fit for you, Odagiri, but it leads to openings on the second floor, and the roof.”_

_ “This place really is perfect,” said Odagiri._

_ “It’s pretty close,” Tazaki agreed. “Jitsui, use the window exit when you head out. Chances of someone being in the basement if you leave through that door are very slim, but still possible.”_

_ “Right,” agreed Jitsui. He finished downing his can of tea then set it on the floor and laid back down on the bed, curling into a ball to conserve heat out of instinct, though it really wasn’t necessary. So warm . . . he thought, dreamily. All he wanted to do was sleep . . ._

_ Someone slapped his ankle. “Up,” ordered Tazaki. “No sleeping. It’ll make it too much harder to get moving when you need to. Which will be sooner than you think.”_

_ Jitsui grumbled._

_ “Don’t press your face against the blankets, you’ll smear the salve off your face.”_

_ Jitsui grumbled some more._

_ “Up,” said Tazaki, slapping his ankle again. “Stop acting like a dopey, lazy panda.”_

_ Jitsui growled and finally uncurled so he could crawl back into a sitting position. “Slave driving, café-owning polar bear,” he shot back._

_ Tazaki gave him a deadpan look. “That doesn’t even make any sense.”_

_ He was fully dressed in his military uniform now, complete with the military issued coat and gloves for Japanese officers stationed in Manchuria. _

_ “I need to go shopping for corpses now. Odagiri, don’t let him go to sleep. Jitsui, don’t forget to drink. Two cups of water, then you can have some coffee.” He gave them a smirk, then left through the window, closing the shutters after him._

_ Odagiri had gotten up and filled a mug with water for Jitsui. He brought it to him, while Jitsui was marveling how quickly the cold draft that had come in when Tazaki left through the window had disappeared. The heat from the boiler room next door had chased it away so quickly. This room was so warm, they could easily do laundry down here with no worries about it not drying fast enough. And they weren’t even having to pay for the heat, or stockpile fuel to provide the heat, or anything! _

_ “Thanks,” he muttered when Odagiri gave him the mug of water. _

_ “Not a problem.” Odagiri sat down beside him. Probably to keep him from laying back down on the bed again, the sly bastard._

_ “I envy you. Getting to stay here, all nice and warm.” Jitsui sighed. “But you’ve been cold a lot longer than I have. For days on end, even. In that theatre. I guess you deserve a break more than me.”_

_ “I hope you can join me here quickly. You’re good company.”_

_ Jitsui laughed at that. “Do you remember back at D-Agency? We never got along.”_

_ “Different times.”_

_ “More like any port in a storm,” said Jitsui. “Or any colleague’s aid when you’re on the run in a frozen wasteland. Still, I have to admit, it has been good seeing you again. Not exactly like old times or anything, but –”_

_ “Better.”_

_ Jitsui gave another slight laugh. “Your itinerary was horrible, though. Next time I plan the reunion party.”_

_ “I’ll be depending on you.”_

* * *

Waking up warm was always a treat in winter. At D-Agency, for Jitsui, that usually meant waking up in bed with Hatano. It was doubly nice to wake up warm, and with Hatano, but in a room so well heated that he would have been warm even if he’d been by himself. The only thing that could have made it better was if Hatano and Jitsui had a bit of privacy. In the dorm, or now down here in the lounge, with all the others, Jitsui couldn’t do more than plant a few kisses here and there on Hatano, or cuddle with him. And as much as he loved doing both of those things, very much, in some ways, it was frustrating, and bordering on torture. He wanted more.

Hatano was sleeping very soundly that morning. Jitsui always found that both adorable and a little worrying. The head injuries that Hatano had gotten last year had overridden his conditioning when it came to sleeping lightly. Most of the other spies had stirred when Tazaki got up, then drifted back to sleep. Jitsui had woken as well, and had almost drifted back to sleep when he heard the front door open and close, and had made an educated guess about what Tazaki was doing. He wanted to grumble about it. Now he felt like he should get up and go stop Tazaki from doing the work that he and Odagiri were supposed to do . . . but when Odagiri didn’t get up either, Jitsui’s motivation for that plummeted. Why should he get up so early and go shovel snow that probably came up to his shoulders by now, when he was so warm and comfortable here, tangled up with Hatano?

So Jitsui moved so his forehead was resting against Hatano’s. Too close to see much of his partner’s adorable face, Jitsui just closed his eyes, but reached up a hand to cup his face, caressing Hatano’s cheek with his thumb. Even being as greedy as he was, having this much still made Jitsui happy. There were times, like now, when it felt like his heart was being squeezed. Just lying there with Hatano, so close and warm was blissful. He would happily stay like this all day if they let him.

Jitsui didn’t actually drift back off to sleep. He wasn’t quite awake either. Maybe an hour or so passed as he lay there, hazily appreciating his situation, before he felt a hand settle on his shoulder and give him a slight shake. 

Odagiri. Ruining his morning and making him get up to go shovel snow, damn him. Grumbling and muttering might have woken up Hatano, would definitely have woken several of the others. Jitsui didn’t want to wake Hatano, at least. Maybe if he was really lucky, Hatano would still be sleeping there adorably when he finished up shoveling snow, and he could crawl back into bed with him . . . except Jitsui knew better than that. After shoveling snow he would be sweaty. Despite the cold outside, as much physical labor as he and Odagiri were about to do would be very exerting. A warm shower when they were finished would be nice, but impossible to get. The best they could hope for was a bucket of warm water to clean up with.

It took a monumental effort to crawl out of bed. Once he finally managed to, Jitsui paused a moment to carefully tuck the blankets back around Hatano, to keep the warmth in. Then he followed Odagiri out of the lounge to get dressed. The only other one up right now was Fukumoto, and he was bringing eggs and a pot of water into the lounge, to use the fireplace to start breakfast. That would probably wake the others up and convince them to get out of bed soon. The idea of hot boiled eggs over rice, with soy sauce seemed very good right now. Except they were probably out of cooked rice, and who knew how long it took to make over the fire? Well maybe soft boiled eggs in a bow of noodle soup. Or warm tamagoyaki and . . . no, Jitsui really needed to stop fantasizing about breakfast. It was only making it harder to wake up and face the snow. 

Tazaki had made a great amount of progress by himself. It made Jitsui wonder if he’d been laying in that sleepy haze longer than he’d thought. Or maybe Tazaki was stronger and much better at shoveling snow than Jitsui had thought. Whichever the reason, he’d done half the front by himself. All that was left was the other half of the front, and the porch area behind the agency. 

So Jitsui and Odagiri got to work, after sending Tazaki inside. A part of Jitsui was sad to see him go. And not just because he was such a good worker and him sticking around would have helped them finish even more quickly than he already had. Tazaki was good company. He’d been a good traveling companion, on both the Manchuria mission and the trip home from Germany. 

Jitsui would give an awful lot right now to be back in one of the warmer countries they’d made their way through. But he’d survived much worse cold than this, for much longer than the couple hours it took them to finish up shoveling. The sun had actually come out. That made it a bit warmer than it would have been if it had stayed cloudy and overcast. And there wasn’t much wind to make it feel colder than it actually was. It was actually looking like it would be a nice, pretty winter day. The kind of day you’d go for a walk on, if there wasn’t upwards of three feet of snow everywhere that hadn’t been plowed or shoveled. As for Jitsui though, he would spend the day inside.

Emma came outside while they were finishing up the back, Amari and Frate with her.

“Papa says I can play outside today!” she said excitedly. “Will you come play with me once you’re done?”

“Odagiri and Jitsui need to eat breakfast once they’re done,” said Amari quickly, sparing them from having to tell her no. Not that Jitsui at least would have had problems doing that. Odagiri might have been enough of a sucker to agree. “You don’t want Fukumoto to yell at them for missing breakfast do you?”

“Uh uh,” Emma agreed. “Can we make a big snow dolphin then? You and me, Papa?”

So Jitsui and Odagiri finished up their snow shoveling with a yappy little dog jumping around their heels and a curious little girl occasionally running up to them and asking them questions. Jitsui did spare a moment to wonder how long it would be before Emma was old enough to conscript into snow shoveling, but only a moment. There weren’t likely to be a whole lot of winters like this, where everyone was home. And Jitsui and Hatano were both still young and baby-faced. With Hatano on the sidelines for awhile, Yuuki-san would probably soon be placing Jitsui in another long term undercover role while he could still take advantage of Jitsui’s innocent, youthful looks.

Finally, they were finished. And while Odagiri stuck around to chat a few minutes more with Amari, Jitsui headed back inside to get warm again, stretching out his aching muscles as he went. He dusted off as much snow as he could in front of the door, before stepping inside, then was as careful as he could be once inside to make sure that any stray snow fell onto the doormat instead of the floorboards. Then he made his way further inside, peeking into the lounge as he passed it to see what was going on in there. Fukumoto spotted him and motioned him in without speaking. Jitsui quickly saw why. Hatano was still asleep, in his bed on the floor. Fukumoto handed off a bucket of hot water to Jitsui, who smiled his thanks, and quickly took it upstairs to the showers. The floor the dorms, and their showers was on was icy cold, this far away from the fire, with no electric heat, but thankfully, Jitsui didn’t need to stay there long. He quickly cleaned himself with his wash cloth and a bit of soap, then poured the bucket of warm water over his head to get all the soap off, then hurriedly dried and went to the dorm for clean clothes, the worst part of his day now behind him. 

Hatano had just awoken when Jitsui re-entered the lounge. He was still in bed, staring sleepily into a bowl of porridge with a soft-boiled egg split on top that Fukumoto must have given him, but hadn’t started eating it yet. Jitsui dropped down onto the bed beside him, picked up the spoon, and held it up to Hatano’s mouth. Hatano smiled then opened his mouth to take the bite.

“Good morning,” Jitsui told him, as he lowered the empty spoon and set it back into the bowl.

“Mmhmm,” Hatano agreed, his mouth still full.

“Jitsui. For you.” Fukumoto was there with another bowl for Jitsui, who accepted it gratefully. 

“Thanks, Fukumoto. It looks great.”

“It tastes great,” confirmed Hatano. “Did you already shovel snow?” he then asked Jitsui.

“Yep. We finished up, I washed up, and now I have the rest of the day free.”

“Maybe you can get some reading done for a change,” suggested Hatano impishly.

“Maybe,” said Jitsui ponderously. “But with any luck, that’s the last of the snow.”

“Don’t get your hopes up,” said Tazaki, who had just entered. “I just finished listening to the radio. This is just a lull. Or, to be perfectly precise, the first storm has passed. But a second storm system is moving in this evening. We should start seeing clouds moving in by early afternoon, and snowflakes falling again around sundown.”

Jitsui grimaced. “How much more snow?”

“Only another foot and a half at most.”  
“Only another foot and a half,” laughed Hatano.

“Better than another three feet or more,” said Tazaki.

“True.”

“Then are we finished with this damn snow?” Jitsui wanted to know.

“It will fall most of the night, all of tomorrow, and part of the next day. The day after that it should be mostly done, but we might get a final inch or two. But then yes. Unless something unexpected happens that none of the country’s meteorologists have mentioned any hints might be brewing, we should be finished with snow for awhile. Or at least a week.”

“A foot and a half spread out over three days isn’t too bad,” said Hatano to comfort Jitsui.

“Yeah,” Jitsui agreed. He was less than thrilled about going back out into the cold two or three more days, but at least he had someplace nice and warm to come back into when he was done. The same couldn’t be said for everyone. In Tokyo alone, there were probably hundreds of families huddled into one heatless room, bundled up in blankets and extra layers of clothes to stay warm. Most of them probably had enough food that they’d only go a little hungry, but coal and charcoal had been harder to come by, thanks to the war. Jitsui was lucky. But he already knew that.

As though he could sense Jitsui’s darker thoughts, Hatano carefully wrapped one end of their bed’s top blanket around Jitsui, and the other end around himself, so that they were sharing, the blanket draped around both their backs and keeping them close together. Jitsui gave him a grateful smile, then took a bite of his porridge. 

“This is really good.”

Fukumoto gave a proud smile. And he had every right to be proud. Cooking meals over a fire was no easy feat. Then he crossed the room to pull open the curtains, and almost blindingly bright morning sunlight spilled in. Excellent light for reading by.

Jitsui smiled too as he took another bite of his breakfast. It was going to be a good day.

* * *

Notes: Hey everyone. I hope you’re staying healthy and safe. The world seems to have gone to hell since the last time I posted a chapter. I’ve been trying to finish it sooner, hoping it would bring a smile to some peoples’ faces, but it’s been kind of hard to write lately. But now this chapter is finished, and hopefully it will brighten your day, even if only a little. :) 


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